Breaking The Mushroom Code
Soma in the Americas:
Carl de Borhegyi
Quoting R. Gordon Wasson:
"Until lately it has been a central feature of the worship of numerous tribes in northern Siberia, where it has been consumed in the course of their shamanic sessions. Its reputation as a lethal plant in the West is, I contend, a splendid example of a tabu long outliving the religion that gave rise to it. Among the most conservative users of the fly-agaric in Siberia the belief prevailed until recent times that only the shaman and his apprentice could consume the fly-agaric with impunity: all others would surely die. This is, I am sure, the origin of the tabu that has survived among us down to our own day." (From Wasson's, Soma of the Aryans: ttp://www.iamshaman.com/amanita/soma- aryans.htm).
The use of hallucinogens in Siberia was first made by Swedish academician Åke Ohlmarks in 1939, who pointed specifically to the hallucinogenic fly agaric, or Amanita muscaria mushroom which he claimed was used by shamans all across Siberia. The idea was extended by Hungarian scholar János Balázs, who suggested that Siberian shamans generally had depended on hallucinogens for trance induction (Steve Beyer, Hallucinogens in Siberia; Feb. 16, 2008). Shamans in their spiritual journeys, act as an intermediary between the natural and supernatural worlds, through the use of psychoactive plants, and in this state the shaman travels to the supernatural realm and back again protected by many animal spirits. The intention of the Shaman was to open communication with the spirit world, often through a form of animal transformation. In the shamans ecstatic trance the soul is believed to leave the body and ascend to the sky or descend into the underworld via the World Tree. In Central Asia and Siberia, the Amanita muscaria mushroom (fly agaric) was an important part of shamanistic rituals, especially among the Finno-Ugric language groups, which will be discussed later (Schultes & Hofmann p.84).
"The use of mushrooms, if I am right, spread over most of Eurasia and the Americas, and as Stone Age Man has emerged into the light of proto-history these strange fungi may well have been the primary secret of his sacred Mysteries"(Wasson and Wasson 1957).
Quoting Ethno-archaeologist Peter T. Furst:
"In its pages [ Russia; Mushrooms and History, 1957 ] Borhegyi and Wasson suggested a connection between the sacred mushrooms of Mexico and the prehistoric stone mushrooms of Guatemala, the first time that such a possibility had been considered in print. The connection between these sculptures and the historic mushroom cults of Mesoamerica has not always been accepted. Though many mushroom stones are quite faithful to nature, they were, until recently, not even universally thought to represent mushrooms at all, and a few die-hards even now, in the face of all the evidence, reject this interpretation" (1972).
In 1952 archaeologists working at the Maya site of Kaminaljuyu on the outskirts of Guatemala City found a tripod stone carving in the shape of a mushroom bearing the effigy of a jaguar on its base. Sure that it corroborated the existence of a pre-Columbian mushroom cult, the Wassons consulted American Museum of Natural History archaeologist Gordon F. Ekholm, who put the Wassons in touch with Maya archaeologist Stephan F. de Borhegyi.
Stephan F. de Borhegyi (better known simply as Borhegyi) had identified the existence of an ancient mushroom stone cult that may have begun as early as 1000 B.C. This cult, which was associated from its beginnings with ritual human decapitation, a trophy head cult, warfare and the ritual ballgame, appears to have had its origins in Mesoamerica along the Pacific coastal piedmont of Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Quoting Maya Archaeologist Michael D. Coe:
"These peculiar objects , one of which was found in an E-III-3 tomb, are of unknown use. Some see vaguely phallic association. Others, such as the late Stephan de Borhegyi, connect them with the cult of the hallucinogenic mushrooms still to this day prevalent in the Mexican highlands, and it is claimed that the mortars and pestles with which the stones are so often associated were used in the preparatory rites" (The Maya, 1993 fifth edition, by M.D. Coe, p. 60).
"My assignment for the so-called mushroom cult, earliest 1,000 B.C., is based on the excavations of Kidder and Shook at the Verbena cemetery at Kaminaljuyu. The mushroom stone found in this Pre-Classic grave, discovered in Mound E-III-3, has a circular groove on the cap. There are also a number of yet unpublished mushroom stone specimens in the Guatemalan Museum from Highland Guatemala where the pottery association would indicate that they are Pre-Classic. In each case the mushroom stone fragments has a circular groove on the top. Mushroom stones found during the Classic and Post-Classic periods do not have circular grooves. This was the basis on which I prepared the chart on mushroom stones which was then subsequently published by the Wassons. Based on Carbon 14 dates and stratigraphy, some of these Pre-Classic finds can be dated as early as 1,000 B.C. The reference is in the following".....(see Shook, E.M. & Kidder, A.V., 1952. Mound E-III-3, Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala; Contributions to American Anthropology & History No. 53 from Publ. 596, Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. (letter from de Borhegyi to Dr. Robert Ravicz, MPM archives December 1st 1960 ).
"Dr. Borhegyi's chart suggests to us that hallucinatory mushrooms were the focus of a cult in the highland Maya world that goes back at least to early pre-classic times, to B.C. 1000 or earlier, the earliest period when technically such artifacts could be carved in stone. Thus tentatively we trace back the use of the divine mushroom in Middle America to the earliest period from which a record could be expected to survive. Beyond that horizon may we project the mushroom agape back through millennia, to the Eurasian home-land whence our Indians' ancestors migrated?
"Dr. Borhegyi later combed the Quiche and Cakchiquel chronicles and legends for references to mushrooms. There come down to us from early times two native narratives of the Highland Maya, one in Quiche and the other in Cakchiquel, the Popol Vuh and the Annals of the Cakchiqnels. Written in the native languages, they have been translated into Spanish and English. Dr. Borhegyi discovered in each of them one reference to mushrooms, and in each case, mushrooms are associated with religious observances".
Mushroom stones that have a circular groove around the base of the cap are classified as Type B, and according to Borhegyi without exception, are of Early and Late Pre-Classic date (1000 BCE.-A.D. 200) (S.F. de Borhegyi 1961 p. 499).
Re-opening Old Roads of Archaeological Inquiry
"They would worship the devil making in his likeness idols and faces of stone, very ugly to which they would sacrifice little dogs and Indian slaves and this was their worship and whom they took for gods; and after they had made some such sacrifice it was their custom to dance and get drunk on some mushrooms in such a manner that they would see many visions and fearful figures" (Wasson 1980 p. 218).
Quoting Wasson (1957):
"Some Middle American specialists may challenge my assumption of a connection between the "mushroom stones", which ceased to be made centuries before Columbus arrived on these shores, and today's surviving mushroom cult.". "For years I had only an assumption to go on, but now, thanks to discoveries made by the late Stephan F. de Borhegyi and us, I think we can tie the two together in a way that will satisfy any doubter"(Wasson,1972:188n).
Photo of Gordon Wasson (above left), from Life Magazine 1957, and above right, Dr. Stephan F. de Borhegyi examining a miniature mushroom stone from Guatemala. The replica mushroom stone sitting next to Gordon Wasson was a gift from Borhegyi. Dr. Borhegyi's association with Guatemalan antiquities began in 1949 when he became associate professor of anthropology at San Carlos University in Guatemala City.
Quoting Archaeologist Michael D. Coe:
"I do not exactly remember when I first met Gordon Wasson, but it must have been in the early 1970's. He was already a legendary figure to me, for I had heard much of him from the equally legendary and decidedly colorful Steve Borhegyi, director of the Milwaukee Public Museum before his untimely death. Steve, who claimed to be a Hungarian count and dressed like a Mississippi riverboat gambler, was a remarkable fine and imaginative archaeologist who had supplied much of the Mesoamerican data for Gordon and Valentina Wasson's Mushrooms, Russia and History, particularly on the enigmatic "mushroom stones" of the Guatemala highlands. His collaboration with the Wassons proved even to the most skeptical that there had been a sort of ritual among the highland Maya during the Late Formative period involving hallucinogenic mushrooms" (from the book; The Sacred Mushroom Seeker: tributes to R. Gordon Wasson, 1990 p.43)
While some anthropologists and archaeologists had accepted Borhegyi's idea that mushrooms and other hallucinogens were used in ancient Mesoamerica, their use was, in most cases, dismissed as relatively incidental and devoid of deeper significance in the development of Mesoamerican religious ideas and mythology. With a few exceptions, notably the research and writings of ethno-archaeologist Peter Furst, further inquiry into the subject on the part of archaeologists came to a virtual halt. Fortunately, a few mycologists, most notably Richard Evans Schultes, Bernard Lowy and Gaston Guzmán, (2002:4; 2009) continued through the years to make important contributions to the scientific literature.
Quoting Wasson (1957):
"Is not the odd phenomenon of mycophilia vs. mycophobia a latter-day echo of early man's shattering experience when he discovered the potent mushrooms, a response, positive and negative, divine and diabolic, to these holy miracle-workers? The toad of our 'toadstool' is that daemon which the Great Lightning Bolt seeded in the mother earth and which sprang forth in the little mushrooms."
"that which is tabu is both feared and loved, unclean and holy, shunned and worshipped. As the old beliefs slowly faded away, each cultural community, no longer able to maintain alive the balanced tensions of the original involvement, clung to one face or the other of the primitive emotions, either rejecting the mushroom world or embracing the strange growths with a quasi-erotic devotion"(Wasson &Wasson,1957).
Quoting Dr. Richard Evans Schultes author of The Plant Kingdom and Hallucinogens:
"Criticism of the mushrooms was particularly vehement, however, perhaps because, as mycophobes, their religious fanaticism could easily be directed in disgust towards a despised form of plant life which, through the vision-giving properties, held the awe of the Indian by permitting him to commune directly and very colourfully with the spirit world. To the Indian mind, nothing that Christianity had offered was comparable. These mushrooms most certainly represented a great obstacle to the spread of the new religion" (United Nations Bulletin on Narcotics Vol. XXI No. 3. July-September 1969, page 12
The custom of circularly grooving the base of the mushroom stone cap (Type B) was discontinued after the Early Pre-Classic period (1000 BCE.). The Late Pre-Classic (500 B.C.--A.D. 200) and Classic period carved effigy, plain, and tripod mushroom stones have only plain caps (for their distribution by archaeological sites see Borhegyi de, 1961).
Quoting Wasson:
"In examining these mushroomic artifacts we must keep in mind that they were not made for our enlightenment. They were iconic shorthand summarizing a whole bundle of associations ,--whatever those associations were. The Christian cross is to be found in endless shapes, including the "effigy cross" or crucifix, and all stem back to a complex of emotions, beliefs, and religious longings. The crucifix would reveal to an archaeologist eons hence more than, say, a Maltese cross. So with the mushroom stones, the subject matter of the effigies holds the secret" (letter from Gordon Wasson to Stephan de Borhegyi March 27th, 1953).
Quoting Wasson (1957):
"There must have been a potent reason why from western Europe to Eastern Greenland people have believed down to our own days in the demonic nature of mushrooms, and we think that reason lies in the strange hallucinatory powers of certain species. From Eastern Siberia to France these mushrooms are linked with 'flies', i.e., the insect world that is itself saturated in demonic mana." (Wasson & Wasson 1957)
Frederick R. Dannaway, author of, A Toad on the Moon: Or a Brief Speculation on Chinese Psychoactive Toad Venoms, writes...
"Toads and mushrooms, such as in toadstools, have had a long association with the more wild, darker elements of reality. The toad is a creature of the night, is slimy and covered in warts and lives in wet, foreboding marshes and swamps. In Europe, the toad has a long relationship with witchcraft and the dark potions and brews usually call for one, with other reptiles, as ingredients. In China, the toad was associated with powerful drugs and elixirs and mushrooms in particular. As Wasson and Needham theorize, the lingzhi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum), reishi of China, may have been chosen as a code for the Amanita muscaria mushroom to protect its profane use and for exclusive use by an elite. There are many images of the lingzhi mushroom depicted as growing out of the head of a toad linking toads, toadstool mushrooms and the possibly substituted lingzhi. Wasson informs us in China that the Amanita muscaria is known as hama jun (ha ma chun Needham 1974), the "toad-mushroom.”
Quoting Borhegyi:
"In connection with the altitude distribution of mushroom stones there seems to be some difficulty. The mushroom stones are not exclusively confined to the Highlands but also occur in the South Coast where the altitude does not exceed 1000 feet. However, as I learned from my informants, the anacate [fly ageric] grows in this region also. An interesting feature is the fact that the mushroom stones from the lower altitudes are of the late type and are plain or tripod, possibly representing a secondary manifestation of the original idea" (Borhegyi to Wasson, June 14, 1953 Wasson Archives Harvard University).
" I spent several days in the region of Lake Atitlan in search for information on present day use of mushrooms. In the village of San Martin Jilotepeque (Dept. of Chimaltenango) Cakchiquel Indians, according to two informants, one Indian the other a ladino. There were some mushroom stones of the tripod variety in the village which the informants said were used as stools" (Borhegyi to Wasson May25, 1953, Wasson Archives Harvard University).
Borhegyi supported his theory of a mushroom cult among the ancient Maya with a solid body of archaeological and historical evidence. Borhegyi's 1957, chronologic distributional chart shows as many as 50 archaeological sites from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador where mushroom stones and pottery mushrooms have been found during archaeological excavations, or in private collections and museums.
"While human decapitation was a widespread custom throughout both the Old and New Worlds as early as the Paleolithic period, its association with ancient team games seems to have occurred only in central and eastern Asia, Mesoamerica, and South America (for ballgames in Southeast Asia, see Loffler, 1955). The use of severed human heads in the polo games of Tibet, China, and Mongolia goes back at least as far as the Chou Dynasty (approximately 1100 B.C. -250 B.C.) and possibly to Shang times (about 1750 B.C. -1100 B.C.). By the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), the polo game in China had become more refined and human heads were apparently replaced by balls. However, the custom of using "trophy heads" in the game must have survived in modern form in marginal areas, as evidence by the fact that the present day Tajik tribesmen of Afghanistan still use the head of a goat as a ball during the game (Abercombie, 1968). While more studies are needed along this line, it is tempting to suggest that the custom of using human heads in competitive ballgames be added to the growing Pre-Classic inventory of "trans-Pacific contacts" (S.F. de Borhegyi 1980, p.25).
For a comprehensive description of the pre-Columbian ball games and its various and occasionally regional uses of ball-game paraphernalia, and on the "trophy head" cult as related to the games, see Borhegyi de, S.F. 1960a, 1961c, 1963b, 1965a: 22-23, nn. 23, 28, 1965c, 1968a, 1968c, 1980)
The Origin of a Siberian Mushroom Cult in the New World:
The prevailing anthropological view of ancient New World history is that its first human inhabitants came from Asia but, having arrived and spread throughout the length and breadth of the two continents, they developed their own complex cultures totally independent of outside influence or inspiration. Beginning with Franz Boas, American anthropologists adopted an essentially isolationist point of view. The peoples of the New World, they argued, were fully capable of developing civilizations as sophisticated as any found in the Old World. Suggestions to the contrary were dismissed as, at best, lacking in hard archaeological evidence, and at worst, fanciful, racist, or demeaning. As a result, Americanists, in general, have ruled out all considerations of possible trans-oceanic contact as lacking in legitimacy.
This isolationist point of view was strongly challenged by a number of anthropologists around the middle of the twentieth century. Among them were Robert Heine-Geldern, an Austrian pioneer in the field of Southeast Asian studies, and Mesoamerican archaeologist Gordon Ekholm. They argued that numerous Old World-New World contacts may have occurred, the majority of them by boat. Ekholm proposed multiple transpacific contacts between the Old and New Worlds beginning as early as 3000 B.C.. Heine-Geldern speculated that the Chinese, during the Chou and Han dynasties, undertook planned voyages to and from the western hemisphere as early as 700 B.C.E.. "Chinese documents indicate that sea-going sailing rafts were in common use in China as early as the fifth century B.C. and perhaps more than two millennia earlier" (Stephen C. Jett, "Man Across the Sea", 1971 p.11).
Quoting the late Dr. Gordon F. Ekholm;
"There are, of course, many problems concerning the kinds of evidence that have been presented in the area of transpacific contacts, but the principal difficulty appears to be a kind of theoretical roadblock that stops short our thinking about questions of diffusion or culture contact. This is true in anthropological thought generally, but the obstruction seems to be particularly solid and resistant among American archaeologists." (ethno-archaeologist Gordon F Ekholm...From Man Across the Sea; Problems of Pre-Columbian Contacts, 1971, third printing 1976, Chapter 2, Diffusion and Archaeological Evidence, by Gordon Ekholm page 54)
Quoting Wasson 1957:
"It can of course be argued that the two great mushroom traditions, that of New World Indians and that of the peoples of Eurasia, are historically unconnected and autonomous, having arisen spontaneously in the two regions from similar requirements of the human psyche and similar environmental opportunities. But are they really unrelated (Wasson and Wasson 1957)?"
Quoting Wasson 1957:
"We discovered startling parallels between the use of the fly amanita in Siberia and the divine mushrooms in Middle America. In Mexico the mushroom 'speaks' to the eater; in Siberia 'the spirits of the mushrooms' speak. Just as in Mexico, Jochelson says that among the Korjaks "the agaric would tell everyman, even if he were not a shaman, what ailed him when he was sick, or explain a dream to him, or show him the upper world or the underground world, or foretell what would happen to him." Just as in Mexico on the following day those who have taken the mushrooms compare their experiences, so in Siberia, according to Jochelson, the Korjaks, "when the intoxication had passed, told whither the 'fly-agaric men' had taken them, and what they had seen," In Bogoras we discover a link between the lightning-bolt and the mushroom. According to a Chukchee myth, lightning is a One-Sided Man who drags his sister along by her foot. As she bumps along the floor of heaven, the noise of her bumping makes the thunder. Her urine is the rain and she is possessed by the spirits of the fly amanita (Wasson and Wasson 1957).
At the time, an abundance of convincing evidence appeared in print supplied by Ekholm and other anthropologists as well as by scholars from different disciplines (Riley, et al, 1971). In addition to providing examples of probable animal, plant, and technological exchange between the continents, they argued that most American prehistorians, being landlubbers, underestimated the ability of ancient seamen to build a craft capable of navigating the oceans. These well-reasoned and documented arguments notwithstanding, acceptance by American anthropologists of the possibility of significant trans-oceanic contacts between the Americas prior to 1492 CE was not forthcoming. Even with the recent awareness that early humans used boats to explore their world as early as 50,000 years ago, when they reached the shores of Australia, this denial has remained as intractably lodged in the minds of New World archaeologists as the possibility of a Worldwide mushroom-based religion.
The late Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist who studied comparative mythology and religion "believed that Asian culture was responsible for Mayan myths, religion, and astronomy, and noted that the Mayan eclipse table in the Dresden Codex was identical to a table that Chinese astronomers produced during the Han Dynasty. "Both tables predicted 23 eclipses within a 135-month period when in fact, only 18 eclipses actually occur. In other words, both Mayan and Chinese eclipse tables were faulty; and that they both contained the same errors. Campbell realized that identical errors could not occur if the original observations had been made independently in China and Mexico. Therefore Campbell concluded that the Mayan eclipse table was derived from a Chinese prototype" (Gunnar Thompson, 2010 p.63)
Quoting Ethno-archaeologist Dr. Robert Heine Geldern:
"The influences of the Hindu-Buddhist culture of southeast Asia in Mexico and particularly, among the Maya, are incredibly strong, and they have already disturbed some Americanists who don't like to see them but cannot deny them....Ships that could cross the Indian Ocean were able to cross the Pacific too. Moreover, these ships were really larger and probably more sea-worthy than those of Columbus and Magellan" (from "Man across the Sea" Problems of Pre-Columbian Contacts, published in 1971).
"Future research will probably indicate that Asiatic influences changed the whole structure of native society and transformed the ancient tribal culture into civilization more or less comparable to those of the Old World." (from "Man Across the Sea"; Problems of Pre-Columbian Contacts, 1971, third printing 1976)
In 1968 Wasson traced the mushroom tabu back to the Vedic Soma:
"What was this plant that was called "Soma"? No one knows. Apparently, its identity was lost some 3,000 years ago, when its use was abandoned by the priests". " I believe that Soma was a mushroom, Amanita muscaria (Fries ex L.) Quel, the fly-agaric, the Fliegenpilz of the Germans, the fausse oronge or tue-mouche or crapaudin of the French, the mukhomor of the Russians. This flaming red mushroom with white spots flecking its cap is familiar throughout northern Europe and Siberia. It is often put down in mushroom manuals as deadly poisonous, but this is false, as I myself can testify.(From Wasson's, Soma of the Aryans: ttp://www.iamshaman.com/amanita/soma- aryans.htm).
Quoting Wasson:
"One of their important gods, Soma (or "Haoma" among the Iranians), was different from all the others: it was a plant as well as a god, the only plant that has been deified in human history" (Gordon Wasson "Soma of the Aryans: an ancient hallucinogen")."
"One of the leading principles of the [Vedic] mystics was the sacredness and secrecy of self-knowledge and the true knowledge of the Gods. This wisdom was, they thought, unfit, perhaps even dangerous to the ordinary human mind or in any case liable to perversion and misuse and loss of virtue if revealed to vulgar and unpurified spirits" "Soma, the plant which yielded the mystic wine for the Vedic sacrifice, has become not only the God of the moon, but manifests himself as mind in the human being" ("The Secret of the Veda" by Sri Aurobindo 1998 pp. 7-8).
"Soma has several different aspects in Hindu mythology: on the one hand, he is creator and father of the gods, the supreme being, created before the three Vedas, on the other hand he is the moon, and he is also a plant, as well as the liquor that is distilled from the plant and the intoxication produced by the liquor" (Larousse World Mythology, 1965 edition, p. 232).
"The equilibrium of the world was maintained through sacrifices and the ritual offering of Soma, the juice of a plant that could well have been Amanita muscaria or Amanita phalloida mushrooms. The meaning of that rite is worthy of reflection: The world exists only on condition that humans inebriate themselves on certain fixed dates and circumstances, thus partaking of the nature of gods. This is the basic principle of the Greek mysteries" (Gerald Messadie, 1997, p.38-39)
Wasson’s theory of Soma being a mushroom was further strengthened by his linguistic studies of cross cultural names for mushrooms, and most importantly on the linguistic origins of the name “toadstool” given to the most feared mushrooms. Wasson proposed (1970) that the religious use of the Amanita muscaria mushroom was widespread in the Old World, "This was the mysterious divine inebriating plant deity called Soma in the worship of the Indo-European peoples who called themselves Aryan, who invaded India from the northeast ca. 1500 B.C." If Wasson's identification of Soma is correct, there should be evidence for the Amanita muscaria mushroom's role in other regions of the world where the migrating Indo-European people may have traveled.
"The Indo-Iranians were late-comers on the stage of history, but they brought down with them the miraculous herb itself and they bequeathed to us the strange, the breath-taking poems known as the Rig Veda" (Peter T. Furst 1972 p.212-213).
" With the aid of certain magical herbs and plants, man may have invented religion. When the Aryans came down from Siberia they brought with them their Ur-religion and an urgaritic language, which became the Vedic and Persian religious expression and later the Indo-European language, which includes Sanskrit and Persian, and the dialects of Greek, Finnish, German, Hindi, and Urdu" (Richard J. Williams 2009 p.7).
“The bemushroomed person is poised in space, a disembodied eye, invisible, incorporeal, seeing but not being seen….In truth, he is the five senses disembodied, all of them keyed to the height of sensitivity and awareness, all of them blending into one another most strangely, until, utterly passive, he becomes a pure receptor, infinitely delicate, of sensations”. (Wasson, 1972a:198; Borhegyi, 1962)
The Finno-Ugrian theory claims that Siberia was the original homeland of the Hungarians also known as Huns and Magyars. Advocates of the Finno-Ugrian theory believe the linguistic and ethnic kinship between the Hungarians and the Finns, Ostyaks and Voguls provide evidence for the origin of the Magyars. The Magyar tribes under the rein of their legendary leader Arpad, (895 A.D.) are thought to be of western Siberia descent. The Avars, another group of nomadic horseman related to the Huns and Magyars, also likely originated in the Altai regions of Central Asia.
"Based on ethnological and linguistic evidence, the Finno-Ugrian tribes (of the Uralic family of languages) which include the Hungarians, used the hallucinogenic mushroom, fly agaric, in proto-historic times, although some of them might have guarded the practice with profound secrecy" (Michael Ripinsky-Naxon 1993, p.147).
Quoting Jordanes:
" They [the Huns] are short in stature, quick in bodily movement, alert horsemen, broad shouldered, ready in the use of bow and arrow, and have firm-set necks which are ever erect in pride. Though they live in the form of men, they have the cruelty of wild beasts". (Jordanes : Getica: The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, c. 551 CE)
The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, writing at the end of the fourth century, described the Huns savage military tactics: "The nation of the Huns . . . surpasses all other Barbarians in wildness of life" .
Above are two effigy mushroom stones from Mesoamerica (Guatemala), both depicting what has beed described as "Diving Gods". Ethno-mycologist Bernard Lowy, proposed that the "diving gods" depicted in the Maya Dresden Codex, were portrayed as under the influence of psychotropic mushrooms (LOWY BERNARD, 1981, Were Mushroom Stones Potter’s Molds?, Revista/Review Interamericana, vol. 11, pp. 231-237.) Stephan de Borhegyi describes the unusual "Diving God" mushroom stone on the left in a letter to Gordon Wasson, dated January 14, 1958.
Quoting Stephan de Borhegyi:
"Supposedly, it comes from near Tecpan and is presently in the private collection of Carlos Nottebohm. Carlos seems to think it represents an "acrobat" or "sacrificial victim". On the other hand, it may show the so-called "Diving Sun God". A clue to its date is even more difficult. The Tecpan-Iximche area was occupied in the Late Classic (500-900 A.D.) and the Post Classic (900-1500 A.D.) times. Stylistically, the specimen looks of a Late Pre-Classic type (500 B.C. - 200 A.D.) The "Diving Sun God" image, however, is characteristic of the Late Classic (500-900 A.D.) period and is shown mostly on Pipil sculpture. So, I am presently at a loss as to the proper placing of our new specimen. It seems that the "acrobatic" little fellow is balancing the mushroom top with his legs. A most unorthodox position" (letter Borhegyi to Wasson, January 14, 1958, Wasson Archives Harvard University).
The presence of petroglyphs with wheeled wagons and chariots suggest that the petroglyphs were carved sometime after the early 3rd millennium BCE., when wheeled wagons and chariots first appear, as evidence by the discovery of a four-wheel clay funerary chariot at Pazyryk. (Man Across the Sea: Problems of Pre-Columbian Contacts: 1971). Pazyryk is the name of an ancient Scythian Iron Age archaeological culture identified by excavated artifacts and mummified humans with European features, found in the Siberian permafrost in the Altai Mountains in tombs called kurgans, dated to the 6th and 4th centuries B.C.E.. In one Pazyryk kurgan archaeologists discovered a 3-metre-high four-wheel clay funerary chariot, also called a toy chariot, dated to the 5th - 4th century BCE. The discovery of similar wheeled toys (A.D. 300-900) in Mexico and El Salvador has caused some archaeologists to re-examine the notion that the principle of the wheel was known in the the New World. Researchers have noted the similarities of wheeled clay toys dug up in Mexico with wheeled clay toys found in Mesopotamia, Syria, China, India, and the Altai Mountains (Man Across the Sea: Problems of Pre-Columbian Contacts: 1971). More on Pazyryk archaeology in just a bit.
Wasson writes that one "peculiar feature of the fly agaric is that its hallucinogenic properties pass into the urine, and another may drink this urine to enjoy the same effect". "This surprising trait of fly agaric inebriation is unique in the hallucinogenic world, so far as our present knowledge goes" (Furst 1976 p. 93). "The koryaks have known since time immemorial that the urine of a person who has consumed fly-agaric has a stronger narcotic and intoxicating power than the fly-agaric itself and that this effect persists for a long time after consumption" (Georg Heinrich von Langsdorf, quoted in Wasson, 1968:249) (Furst 1976, p.91).
Quoting Wasson (1957)
" Those who have mastered the mushrooms arrive at an extraordinary command of their faculties and muscular movements: their sense of timing is heightened."
One of the more interesting observation regarding the Kalbak Tash petroglyphs above, are that all the mushroom-headed figures carry what appear to be a shaman's pouch made from the stomach of various animals. It may have been used to collect the urine of reindeer or those who consumed the fly agaric mushrooms. In Siberia, the urine of those consuming fly agaric was highly prized, and that its has been reported that a Koryak tribesman would eagerly exchange a reindeer for a single fly agaric" (Michael Ripinsky-Naxon 1993, p.163).
The Kalbak-Tash petroglyphs depicts deer hunters with mushroom-shaped heads, carrying a pouch or sac near their waist. The figures have been described by Elena Okladnikov in her publication "Fantastic Predator of Kalbak-Tash, as male figures with oval objects at their waist and wearing mushroom-hats (Elena Okladnikov Vol.120 March 19, 2014).
"...reindeer also enjoy the urine of a human, especially one who has consumed the mushrooms. In fact, reindeer will seek out human urine to drink, and some tribesmen carry sealskin containers of their own collected piss, which they use to attract stray reindeer back into the herd (Lee Sayer, Dec. 25, 2014)
". . .these animals (reindeer) have frequently eaten that mushroom, which they like very much. Whereupon they have behaved like drunken animals, and then have fallen into a deep slumber. When the Koryak encounter an intoxicated reindeer, they tie his legs until the mushroom has lost its strength and effect. Then they kill the reindeer. If they kill the animal while it is drunk or asleep and eat of its flesh, then everybody who has tasted it becomes intoxicated as if he had eaten the actual fly agaric. (Georg Wilhelm Steller, 1774, in Wasson, 1968: 239-240)
Quoting ethno-archaeologist Peter T. Furst:
"It happens that not only Siberian shamans but their reindeer as well were involved with the sacred mushrooms. Several early writers on Siberian customs reported that reindeer shared with man a passion for the inebriating mushroom, and further, that at times the animals urgently sought out human urine, a peculiarity that greatly facilitated the work of the herders in rounding them up—and that might just possibly have assisted their reindeer-hunting ancestors in early efforts at domestication:
"The reindeer with which man, first as hunter and then as herder, has lived in an intimate relationship for tens of thousands of years has itself a certain intriguing relationship with the hallucinogenic fly-agaric mushroom, even to the point of inebriation, a phenomenon that could hardly have failed to impress the Paleo-Eurasiatic peoples of long ago as much as it has impressed recent Siberian tribesmen" (Peter T. Furst, 1976 p.6).
The Kalbak Tash petroglyphs depict mushroom-headed deer hunters, and warriors that carry a skin-sack that was likely used to collect the urine of those who consumed the fly agaric mushrooms.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, it was reported by travel writers, and natural scientists of the use of Amanita muscaria mushrooms among certain tribes in Siberia, and the curious practice of secondary intoxication with urine suffused with Amanita muscaria mushrooms (Furst, 1972 ix). Reindeer are common in Siberia and seek out the Amanita muscaria mushroom. We are told that reindeer have a pronounced liking for the urine of those who has consumed this hallucinogenic mushroom, and that some Siberian tribesmen carry skin-containers of their own collected urine, which the hunter then uses to attract the reindeer (Lee Sayer, Dec. 25, 2014). (photograph of Pazirik shaman pouch) (photographs from mongolianaltai.uoregon.edu).
"The swollen men piss the flowing Soma, full bladders, piss Soma quick with movement" (Schultes & Hofmann 1979 p.83)
"Ethnographic documents about the Paleo-Asiatic peoples leads one to think that this urine could be preferable to the original substance because it is more powerful, according to some, or, according to others, because certain chemical compounds present in the mushroom, which cause unpleasant side effects, are eliminated in their passage through the body while the hallucinogenic alkaloid or alkaloids are preserved. Thus, the Siberians practiced two different modes of consumption: either of the mushroom itself or of the urine excreted by an intoxicated person".
"Russian experts have christened them the 'fly agaric people’ after the hallucinogenic mushrooms it is believed they consumed. ‘They were often depicted with their arms spread apart, and legs slightly bent at the knees,’ (Svetlana Skarbo, 2021 Sept. 14).
There are several interpretations of these petroglyphs, Dikov, in his article "Nascal mysteries of ancient Chukotka",suggested interpreting these images "as anthropomorphic toadstools", and Dr Mikhail Bronstein, chief researcher at the the Russian State Museum of Oriental Art, has proposed that the Pegtymel petroglyphs from the Chukotka region of Siberia, "highlight a ritual, magical dance, comparable to the dances of shamans". According to mycologist Giorgio Samorini (2001), the engravings of anthropomorphic figures holding a large mushroom above their heads are female, "the female figures would correspond to the “amanita-girls” that appear in the visions of modern Chukchi when they ingest the mushroom; they take the person by the hand and lead them to the afterlife to visit the world of the dead (Samorini G. / Antrocom Online Journal of Anthropology, vol. 18, n. 1 (2022) 5-27) (Bogoras 1904-09:282).
According to Kaplan, the analysis of the iconography (motifs) strongly suggest that they were symbols of a religion which had at its main theme worship of the sun, and that they were engraved as part of the ritual worship (Reid W. Kaplan; The Sacred Mushroom in Scandinavia; March 1975) (Gelling & Davidson: 1969).
"Amongst these motifs the ship-figure is particularly noteworthy. It seems to occupy a central position in the ritual as the vehicle by which the sun, after being drawn westward by horses across the sky by day, returns to the east. The ship often serves as a setting for other symbols, indicating the religious nature of the subject in much the same way that a cartouche indicates the royal nature of the Egyptian hieroglyphs within it (Reid W. Kaplan; The Sacred Mushroom in Scandinavia; March 1975)
Quoting Wasson:
“The bemushroomed person is poised in space, a disembodied eye, invisible, incorporeal, seeing but not being seen….In truth, he is the five senses disembodied, all of them keyed to the height of sensitivity and awareness, all of them blending into one another most strangely, until, utterly passive, he becomes a pure receptor, infinitely delicate, of sensations”. (Wasson, 1972a:198)
Quoting Wasson:"I suggest that the toadstool was originally the fly-agaric in the Celtic world; that the toadstool in its shamanic role had aroused such awe and fear and adoration that it came under a powerful tabu, perhaps like the Vogul tabu where the shamans and their apprentices alone could eat it and others did so only under pain of death...This tabu was a pagan injunction belonging to the Celtic world. The shamanic use of the fly-agaric disappeared in time, perhaps long before the Christian dispensation" (Kevin Feeney 2020, Fly Agaric: Chapter. 11 p.145) (Wasson 1968:191)
According to Allen Piper:
"The use of psychoactive bulls flesh has been recorded among the Celts who are ultimately of Indo-European origin, and whose religious leaders, the Druids, have been repeatedly linked to the Brahmins, the priestly cast of the Vedas. Given that the Celts are an Indo-European people, it is not surprising that the Druids have been persistently linked with the Brahmins and Magi, by both ancient and by modern Indo-European scholars. Both Pliny and Hippolytus class the Druids and Magi together (Allen Piper 2013 p.245 in the book, Entheogens and the Development of Culture).
Mushroom-headed Earth Goddess figurine from the Eastern Carpathian basin, Moldavia. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Celts, Illyrian, and Thracian tribes, of the Carpathian basin and Balkans, included the cult of the mother-goddess in their religious rites.
Quoting Carl A. P. Ruck:
"The Dacian/Thracian (Scythian, Persian) warriors partake of the same tradition of the mushroom-induced battle fury documented for the Nordic berserkers, indicating a cult widespread throughout Europe. These warriors metamorphosed into wolves or bears on the battlefield, a tradition associated with the Thracians in antiquity."(source Carl P. Ruck, 2015 The Mushroom Stones. Dionysus, Orpheus,and the Wolves of War).
Quoting Carl A. P. Ruck:
"The Dacians are explicitly documented with a sacred mushroom in the time of Trajan (Dio Cassius, Roman History, epitome of book 68.8.1), and the berserker rite of the mushroom was probably widespread throughout Europe in Classical times. The Dacian/Thracian (Scythian, Persian) warriors partake of the same tradition of the mushroom-induced battle fury documented for the Nordic berserkers. These warriors metamorphosed into wolves or bears on the battlefield, a tradition associated with the Dacians/Thracians in antiquity."(source Carl P. Ruck, 2015 The Mushroom Stones. Dionysus, Orpheus,and the Wolves of War)
Quoting Carl A. P. Ruck:
"The specific mushroom, which figures prominently in folklore is the red Amanita muscaria, which alone of the psychoactive fungi is noted for its ability to impart intensified physical strength (Wasson, 2001; Keewaydinoquay, 1984, tale 6; Ruck et al., 2007, pp.287-294). This is a strong indication that this species is the mushroom involved in these rituals of lycanthropy. It is the only mushroom depicted in the fairytale tradition of European lycanthropy. Additionally, its red color (which links it with Claviceps purpurea and the red fox) identifies this as the species involved. It also fits the expectable paradigm as being visionary and psychoactive, but easily confused with its edible variety as the Amanita caesaria and its deadly relative the Amanita phalloides and related species. Contrary to common belief, which is a reflection of the taboo placed upon a sacred item, few mushrooms are actually lethal. Another of these Amanita mushrooms is also psychoactive and bears the name of regalis (‘royal’), and both regalis and caesaria (‘caesar’) is a nomenclature that reflects not the fondness of monarchs for these mushrooms, but the royal status of a sacred plant" (Carl A.P. Ruck, The Wolves of War: Evidence of an Ancient Cult of Warrior Lycanthropy)
In Mesoamerica the intention of the mushroom ritual was to open communication directly with the spirit world, often through a form of animal transformation. In a fascinating article about the Huichol's of present day Mexico, and their esoteric practice of "Wolf-shamanism" posted online by researcher Mark Hoffman, 3-27-2002, titled "Huichol Wolf Shamanism and A. muscaria".
"The best evidence of the ritual use of A. muscaria among the Huichol Wolves was recorded in remarkable detail by Susana Valadez whose informant, Ulu Temay, from San Andrés Cohamiata, Jalisco, came from a long line of Wolf-shamans. He specifically describes the fly agaric as wolf-peyote and gives us a revealing glimpse into the secret religion of the Wolf-people as well as the prolonged initiation process required of them".
“No, they do not eat peyote. They eat their own plants that make them feel as though they had eaten peyote. They bring mushrooms which they eat. This is a red mushroom with white spots. They use these mushrooms in all of their ceremonies.”
In Mesoamerican mythology the harpy eagle is associated with the World Tree, as well as with both the resurrected sun, and the planet Venus as a resurrection star. The mural above is from the great city of Teotihuacan (150 B.C.E.-750 C.E.) in Central Mexico, and depicts a harpy eagle in association with a trefoil symbol, similar in shape and meaning as the Old World Fleur de lis symbol.
The ancient carving above depicts a sacred bird with wings that encode a trefoil as a symbol of divinity. The carving has been identified as Türk-Moğol, and is from the North Caucasus region on the Caspian Sea, in the Russian Republic of Dagestan also spelled Daghestan (Türk-Moğol Altın Ordu Devletine ait Rölyefler. 1242-1502. Golden Horde Dağıstan).
In Mesoamerica the harpy eagle which was associated with both the sun and the planet Venus, was thought of as the jaguar of the day sky being the greatest avian predator of the New World.
Above in the middle is a page from the Codex Borgia, one of the few remaining pre-Conquest codices attributed to the people of Highland Mexico. These pictorial documents contain much valuable information pertaining to native history, mythology, and ritual, related to a pantheon of supernatural gods. The codex painting depicts the World Tree, emerging from the body of a death god in the underworld. Note that the artist has tagged trefoils to the sacred tree as a symbol of holy or divine. Perched atop the sacred tree is a harpy eagle, a symbol of the Morning Star and the new born Sun, and the avatar of the Mexican god-king Quetzalcoatl the Feathered Serpent (http://americaindigena.com/sacred16.htm). Above on the right is another image of a harpy eagle, this one diving from the sky into a sacred beverage that the artist has esoterically tagged with trefoil symbols, signifying holy or sacred, or even God.
Unfortunately, due to Spanish intolerance of indigenous religious beliefs, only eighteen pre-Conquest books attributed to the people of Highland Mexico have survived to the present day.
The Aztecs believed that the sun during its journey through the underworld required sustenance in the form of human hearts in order to have enough strength to resurrect into the sky. In the morning, as the sun rose from the underworld into the sky the Aztecs called this god Cuauhtlehuanitl, “the eagle who ascends”; and Cuauhtemoc “the eagle who fell”, as in the suns journey into the underworld. Mesoamericans tried to explain celestial phenomena through myth and the sun was seen as an eagle that soars in the sky. The harpy eagle was most likely a symbol of the sun, and the morning star associated with human sacrifice and divine resurrection in nourishing the new born sun (Mary Miller and Karl Taube, 1993:82-83).
The worship of Tengri, the Supreme Sky Deity, and creator of the universe, of the ancient Scythians has been partially preserved to this day by the Altai people. At some point in their history the simple nature cult of their Siberian homeland was expanded into a rich complex shamanistic religious tradition based on the worship of the Tree of Life, and the ecstatic experience achieved by consuming the Amanita muscaria mushroom. In Tengrianism there is a conception of three worlds, an upper world, symbolized by a bird deity, a middle world symbolized by a serpent, and a lower world, symbolized by a feline, that are linked by a World Tree, the treetop being the gateway or portal into the upper world, a belief system that is also shared by the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica.
Tengrism was the belief system practiced in earlier times by Turk, Huns, and Mongolian tribes in Siberia and Central Asia. Tengrism was the belief based on ancestral worship as well as animism, shamanism, and totemism. Similar to Tengrism, the religions of Mesoamerica was also based on animism and ancestral worship, that all things, animate or inanimate, were imbued with an unseen power, inhabiting rocks, trees, or other objects. In Mesoamerica the shaman, is responsible for the relationships between humans and the surrounding animistic forces. In both Siberia and in the New World, the shaman's ability to communicate with unseen forces by divination, (the mushroom being the medium) provided a measure of power over other members of society (The Ancient Maya: 4th Edition 1983, p.460).
In Siberia, ceremonies of prayer and honor to divine spirits are arranged at places such as the World Tree. Trees symbolize the world center, where heaven and earth touch, the top of the World Tree, which is usually visualized as a birch or willow or the open smoke-hole of the yurt is the entry gate or portal for shamans on their journeys to the other world (source: Religion of the indigenous people of Siberia).
"The effects of the Amanita mushroom usually include sensations of size distortion and flying. The feeling of flying could account for the legends of flying reindeer, and legends of shamanic journeys included stories of winged reindeer, transporting their riders up to the highest branches of the World Tree" (Lee Sayer, Dec. 25, 2014) .
According to Wasson (1957):
"...that the same word for 'mushroom' is shared by the Indo-European peoples, the eastern Finnic peoples, the Paleo-Siberian tribes as far as the eastern tip of Siberia, and perhaps even the Eskimos and the Arabs. Do we not now discover the potent secret of the mushrooms that might explain the wide dissemination of a single pre-Indo-European word? For the cultural historian it becomes imperative that the surviving traces of the mushroom cult among the peripheral peoples of Siberia be minutely and sympathetically examined on the ground by anthropologists and linguists, and likewise the similar use of a mushroom in the interior of New Guinea."
The Aztecs at the time of the Spanish Conquest referred to mushrooms as flowers (R. Gordon Wasson, 1980 p.79). The Aztec symbol for flower, depicted as a trefoil in the Aztec calendar's cycle of 20 day names, appears to be a New World version of the Old World Fleur de lis symbol, having the same meaning as "Lord" linked to the Tree of Life and a trinity of gods. According to Wasson, Aztec poets used the word for flowers as a figure of speech for the sacred mushroom and the mushroom experience, or trance (Wasson 1980 p.79). Among the Aztecs, the word, xochinanacatl, meaning "flower mushroom " xochitl meaning flower and nanacatl meaning mushroom, is recorded in Fray Alonzo de Molina's lexicon of the Nahuatl language, the language of the Aztecs, published in 1571.
Most of Mesoamerica shared the same calendar. Above are the Maya, Zapotec, and Aztec calendars all of which have the same cycle of 20 day names. Each day has a glyph to represent it, and the last glyph in the Mayan Calendar is Ahau (also spelled Ajaw) a symbol that means god or "Lord", among the ancient Maya. Note that the last day representing the number 20, in the Zapotec calendar means ruler or lord, and that the figure is crowned with a symbol similar in shape and meaning as the Old-World Fleur de lis symbol. In the Aztec calendar the symbol for flower is similar in shape and meaning to the Old World Fleur de lis symbol. The flower-symbol xochitl representing the number 20 in the Aztec Calendar appears to be a New World version of the Old World Fleur de lis symbol, representing divinity, immortality, and "Lord".
Among the ancient Maya the ritual ballgame was played to commemorate the completion of time periods in the sacred calendar, such as a 20-year time period called a katun that always ended on the day Ahau, (also spelled Ajaw).
Above is a figurine holding what the author proposes is an Amanita muscaria mushroom in his left hand. There is plenty of evidence that ballplayers from the Gulf Coast area wore knee pads with the Ahau glyph design a symbol of Lord, and Maya kingship (Borhegyi de, 1980: 8). The ballplayer figurine depicts three Ahau glyphs, one on each knee and one on his waist protector called a ballgame yoke (Ballgame Figurine from Denver Museum collection).
Above is a Zapotec urn discovered in Tomb 33 at the site of Monte Alban, in Oaxaca Mexico. The urn likely portrays a ruler or deity crowned with a symbol of rulership that the author proposes is early version of the Old World Fleur de Lis symbol. (photograph of Zapotec urn from http://roadslesstraveled.us/monte-alban/)...(Marcus Winter 2004: 509) The ruler or deity portrayed on the urn depicts the familiar Olmec snarl, and facial features that appear remarkably similar to those found in Asia.
Artifacts as well as ancient Hunnic writing are found in the Altai Mountain region indicating a Hun-Scythian culture. The decipherment of 40 signs in the Old Hungarian Runic script discovered in the Altai Mountain region has been described by Karžaubaj Sartkožauly, a member of the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences, in a three-volume monograph on the Orkhon script [4], where he presumed the inscription to be from the seventh century BCE. The longest and possibly the oldest known rock inscriptions from the Altai Mountains, are believed to be Old Turkish Runic inscriptions, dated to around 8,000 BCE. (Ulukem / Sülyek / Tuva (Altays) 8000 BC. Gravures Rup. V. Comanica, D. Riba, ed. Fr. Empire, Paris, 1984).
Above is a ceramic horse-shaped vessel from the Central-Asian steppe (Maku) 8th -7th century BCE., that encodes a trefoil symbol similar in shape to the Fleur de lis (Archaeology Museum, Tehran, Iran). The domestication of the horse has its origin in Central Asia prior to 3500 BCE. The role of horses in Scythian funeral rituals is well known since the excavations by Rudenko at Pazyryk, and other archaeological sites in Siberia, Mongolia, or Kazakhstan (Rudenko 1970; see also, for example: Bourgeois et al. 2000, Derevianko and Molodin, 2000; Benecke 2007; Benecke and Weber 2007) (Lepetz S. 2013. — Horse sacrifce in a Pazyryk culture kurgan: the princely tomb of Berel’(Kazakhstan).
Above and below are symbols of the Old Hungarian hieroglyphic/runic writing system or Székely writing. The trefoil symbols above appear to be similar in shape and meaning to the Fleur de lis symbol, representing divinity, God, and Lord, and is tagged to certain objects that were deemed divine or holy. According to a legend known from the Hungarian chronicles, a large portion of Attila the Hun’s army remained in Transylvania, and many scholars believe they were the Székelys, who allegedly greeted the conquering Magyar tribes from Siberia with open arms in the 9th century. Above on the right is a Hun diadem (Szkita crown ?) with trefoil symbol.
Above is a page from the Codex Azcatitlan, a sixteenth century manuscript painted by indigenous artists, that depict an Aztec temple in the background surmounted by a trefoil symbol similar to the Fleur de lis. (Photo; courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris).
Quoting Geza Varga:
"Carl de Borhegyi sent me a picture of a page of the Azcatitlan codex of the Aztecs kept in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France library in Paris. He drew my attention to the occurrence of our word sign for God (fleur-de-lis in French). It is clear that this Aztec symbol is not of French origin, but one or more of the great ancestors of the Scythians, Huns and Avars, migrating from Siberia to America, who may have brought it to the New World sometime in the millennia BC. The Hungarian hieroglyphic writing was the symbolic system of the Stone Age religion and spread with the groups of Homo sapiens sapiens from the Pyrenees to America and Australia. Since there are several Hungarian hieroglyphs on the top of the Aztec tower church, it was inevitably left to me to analyze and present this pyramid depiction. Further parallels of the Aztec signs presented below and not cited here undoubtedly prove that this is a common root sign usage. Since there are several Hungarian hieroglyphs on the top of the Aztec stepped tower church, it became necessary to analyze and present this pyramid representation. The Aztec signs presented below and their parallels form a system and support my readings".
According to Geza Varga the Hungarians are the Huns’ descendants; their hieroglyphic script had once been common with those of the Steppe and other people. (Ford.: Varga Endre Szabolcs, Arjun Sabharval és Zombori Lajos)
Below is a Classic Period Teotihuacan inspired polychrome plate, photographed by Justin Kerr, that depicts a symbol known to Maya epigraphers as the quincunx, that alludes to the five synodic cycles of Venus, as well as to the four cardinal directions and it's sacred center.
Above is a Classic Period Teotihuacan inspired Maya polychrome plate, that depicts at it's center, the Mexican god Tlaloc, surrounded by what appears to the author to be four stylized Fleur de lis symbols. As a Rain and Lightning God, Tlaloc provided the sustenance needed for everlasting life, in return for the shedding of human blood on earth.
Géza Varga, historian of writing, believes he can decode several of the symbols on the polychrome plate from Old Hungarian runic script..."this is the hieroglyphic phrase, "Land of the river god Hole Ak". Above on the left are Mayan hieroglyphs of the world model and on the right corresponding signs of Szekler writing (right, top to bottom): "ly" (hole. Hole), Ak (stream, Heracles), ancestor, ten, "ü" (case "river") and "f" (earth), possible interpretation of signs in modern Hungarian: Ak Hole is the land of the divine river". (Varga Géza: "The origins of Hunnish Runic Writing" ...https://puskikiado.hu/varga-geza-the-origins-of-hunnish-runic-writing.html
Géza Varga, historian of writing : Google Translate:
"Carl de Borhegyi drew my attention to the Maya disc shown in Figure 1 (above) with his writing available from the bibliography below, for which I thank him here as well. In this article I will identify the signs of this disc with elements of the Hungarian hieroglyphic writing (and székely writing). Due to the limitations of this short article, I cannot repeat the considerations of my rovological research over the last 50 years, which the reader can find in the volume "Hungarian Hieroglyphic Writing" if you want to know the details and support my findings". "These parts of the Mayan world model can already be clearly identified with the Hungarian hieroglyphies, also known from Eurasia". "This data (the Mayan teo sound form of the Fleur de lis symbol and the meaning of "god", which also appears in the name of Teotihuacan) is of paramount importance to Hungarian writing and language history. It suggests that the American Indians took not only the symbol forms from the Huns' ancestors, but also the Hungarian sign names. In our case, this could have been the ten sound form, which is the second element of the composition that can be read today as God. This ten-tone sign name may have meaning "god" when the Indians migrated to America, the original name of the god (a + ten), which was transferred to America with the sign" (Varga Geza irastortenesz, 2021. julius 8., csutortok).
The late Maya archaeologist J. Eric S. Thompson identified this configuration of five as the quincunx, a variant of the Central Mexican Venus sign. The design of this symbol symbolizes the four cardinal directions and its central entrance to the underworld where the World Tree is located. The symbol of the quincunx is of great antiquity, having been found at the Olmec site of San Lorenzo on Monument 43 dated at 900 B.C. The quincunx design also appears on Maya Venus Platforms. The Olmec and Maya believed that It was through this portal that souls passed on their journey to deification, rebirth and resurrection. According to Maya archaeologist David Freidel, the Maya called this sacred center, mixik' balamil, meaning "the navel of the world" (Thompson,1960:170-172, fig. 31 nos.33-40; Freidel & Schele, 1993:124) This configuration of five also symbolizes the "fiveness" of Venus , or five synodic cycles of Venus identified in the Venus Almanac of the Dresden Codex (Milbrath 1999 p.199). The World Tree, the axis mundi or center of the quincunx is the central portal of Underworld Venus resurrection.
Above on the left is a close up scene from the Codex Selden, also a pre-Conquest manuscript from Highland Mexico, painted sometime around A. D. 1500, that encoded the Fleur de lis symbol emerging from the four branches of the World Tree, or Tree of Life as a symbolic reference to the four cardinal directions, and its sacred center. Above on the lower left, is a closeup view of a figure from the Codex Bodley another Mixtec manuscript from Highland Mexico, painted sometime around A. D. 1500. Once again its likely that the artist tagged the sacred mushroom with a Fleur de lis symbol as a symbol of divinity and eternal life.
Above on the upper right is a ball court marker found near the border of Mexico and Guatemala, that are associated with the archaeological sites of Bilbao, and El Baúl that the author believes may be encoded with stylized mushrooms. This configuration of five, identified as the quincunx, symbolizing the "fiveness" of Venus, it is a reference to the central portal of Venus resurrection and the four cardinal directions (photo from Borhegyi archives MPM)
Above on the lower right is a pre-Columbian drinking vessel that encodes the sacred fruit from the Tree of Life, as sacred mushrooms depicted in profile (Source: Metropolitan Museum 1978.412.113) (photgraph of Amanita muscaria by Productora de hongos y Micelio E.I. fungi).
Above in the center is an image from a Late Classic (A.D. 500-900) Maya vase painting K3060 (Justin Kerr Maya Vase Data Base) that portrays a long-lipped-bearded-deity with bulbous nose and serpentine eye, at the center of the quincunx surrounded by sacred mushrooms that represent the four cardinal directions. Known to the ancient Maya as Chaac, and designated as "God B," by Schellhas, he is the most frequently depicted Maya god in the three surviving pre-Conquest Maya codices. Chaac, like his Aztec-Toltec counterpart Tlaloc, represents the embodiment of lightning, rain and thunder (Herbert Spinden 1975 p.62). Although some scholars seem reluctant to identify Tlaloc and Chaac as the same mushroom inspired deity, they are both connected with underworld decapitation, and Venus resurrection, and with the four cardinal directions and its sacred center. (Owner: Popol Vuh Museum, Guatemala)
Above are all Late Classic images of the Maya god Chaac, depicted in association with the Fleur de lis symbol.
In the Dresden Codex Venus pages, Venus is referred to "chac ek" meaning "Great Star". The Maya god Chaac like his Mexican counterpart Tlaloc wields the axe of Underworld decapitation, and both deities are intimately associated with sacred mushrooms that act as divine portal to the Underworld. Chaac, like his Mexican counterpart Tlaloc, are commonly depicted in art wielding an axe of ritual decapitation and lightning bolts in the shape of serpents. Although Chaac is identified with the four cardinal directions, he was sometimes thought of as the "one" god who resided at the center of the universe. A page in the Dresden Codex portrays four Chaacs seated in the trees located at the four cardinal directions of time and space. A fifth Chaac is seated in a cave representing the cosmic center of the world. Once again symbolizing the "fiveness" of Venus referring to the five synodic cycles of Venus. The Maya god Chaac may also be equated with the Maya god Kukulcan, who was the Maya/Toltec version of the god Quetzalcoatl. The word k'uh, means "holy spirit" or "god", and the word chan or kaan means both serpent and sky (Freidel, Schele, Parker, 1993 p. 177).
While the actual identity of Soma has been lost through time, both its description and the details of its preparation seem to point to the Amanita muscaria mushroom, better known as the fly agaric. The flesh of the plant was crushed, using “Soma stones,” and the juices were filtered through wool into large jars. In a like manner, Maya mushroom stones, when they have been found in situ in the course of archaeological excavation, are often accompanied by stone grinding tools known as manos and metates. Accounts of mushroom ceremonies still in practice among the Zapotec Indians of Mexico confirm the use of these tools in the preparation of hallucinogenic mushrooms for human consumption. "Direct diffusion, involves either the importation of an actual item or its manufacturer or the learning and implementation of the trate by members of a recipient culture through contact and imitation" (Stephen C. Jett 1971 p.44).
One must conclude that these manos and metates were used for the same purpose as the sacred stones described in the Rig Veda that were used to prepare Soma. Like the Soma plant of ancient India, Haoma, the sacrificial mystery plant and god of the Persians was also pressed and pounded for its intoxicating juices, the so-called "elixir of immortality", and its ritual consumption and libation is the principal act of sacrifice (Larousse World Mythology 1963 p.193).
Similarly, there is archaeological evidence from the Guatemalan highlands supporting the use of metates to grind and press the sacred hallucinogenic mushrooms prior to their consumption in a mushroom ceremony. This possibility is supported by the fact that the practice survives to the present in Mazatec mushroom ceremonies in southern Mexico (S.F. de Borhegyi, 1961:498-504).
Quoting Borhegyi:
"The association of mushroom stones with the metates and manos greatly strengthens the possibility that at least in some areas in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, metates were used to grind the sacred hallucinatory mushrooms to prepare them for ceremonial consumption." (de Borhegyi 1961: 498-504)
If the identification of the mystery plant described in the Rig Veda called Soma is in fact the Amanita muscaria mushroom, first proposed by Wasson, then there can be little doubt that the Amanita muscaria mushroom was indeed the model for the numerous small stone sculptures found in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador known as "mushroom stones" or mushroom idols.
Quoting Wasson:
"The prodigious expansion in Man's memory must have been the gift that differentiated mankind from his predecessors, and I surmise that this expansion in memory led to a simultaneous growth in the gift of language, these two powers generating in man that self-consciousness which is the third of the triune traits that alone make man unique. Those three gifts - memory, language and self-consciousness - so interlock that they seem inseparable, the aspects of a quality that permitted us to achieve all the wonders we now know." (R. Gordon Wasson, p. 80, Entheogens and the Origins of Religion. Yale University Press, New Haven MA.)
According to Allegro:
"It is not surprising that the mushroom should have become the centre of a mystery cult in the near east which persisted for thousands of years. There seems good evidence that from there it swept into India in the cult of Soma some 3,500 years ago; it certainly flourished in Siberia until quite recent times, and is found even today in certain parts of South America" (Allegro 1970).
"The Nahua [Aztecs] before the Spaniards arrived called them [referring to sacred mushrooms] "God's flesh", teonanacatl. I need hardly draw attention to a disquieting parallel, the designation of the Elements in our Eucharist: "Take, eat, this is my body ..."; and again, "Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear son..." But there is one difference. The orthodox Christian must accept on faith the miracle of the conversion of the bread into God's flesh: that is what is meant by the doctrine of transubstantiation. By contrast, the mushroom of the Nahua carries its own conviction: every communicant will testify to the miracle that he has experienced" (Peter T. Furst 1972, pp191-192).
Quoting Carl A.P. Ruck (Mushroom Sacraments in the Cults of Early Europe 2016),
" The Soma sacrament as the Persian haoma was proselytized to the west by the Zoroastrian priests of Mithras and became a major cohesive indoctrination for the Emperors, army, and bureaucrats who administered the Roman Empire. It survived the Conversion to Christianity in the knighthoods of late antiquity and the medieval world, and was assimilated to the Eucharist of certain of the ecclesiastical".
"Mithraism [Magi priests] was the way that Zoroastrian monotheism spread the mushroom haoma sacrament of the Persians into Europe as an element in the sevenfold stages of its secret drug-induced initiation" (Ruck 2013, p.367).
A common depiction of enlightenment is a glowing halo, also known as a nimbus, has been used in the iconography of many Old World religions to indicate holy or sacred figures. For reasons that may never be known, the ceremonial use of Amanita muscaria mushrooms and the drinking of Soma, was later replaced in Vedic and Hindu rituals, and Soma's true identity became a mystery. Above on the left is an anthropomorphic mushroom stone (Type C) from El Salvador, Esperanza period 300 to 600 A.D. now in the Rietberg Museum in Zurich. The nine pointed halo star comprising the headdress around the deity's head may allude to the 9-layers of the Maya underworld, and may represent G-9, the last of the Nine Lords of the Night or Underworld.
"The Mithraic sacramental banquet was derived from the Yasna ceremony, wine taking the place of the Haoma and Mithra that of Ahura Mazda. In the Mithraic initiation rites, it was not until one attained the status of the initiatory degree known as “Lion” that the neophyte could partake of the oblation of bread, wine, and water, which was the earthly counterpart of the celestial mystical sacramental banquet. The sacred wine gave vigor to the body, prosperity, wisdom, and the power to combat malignant spirits and to obtain immortality” (Encyclopedia Britannica (1991, vol. 26, pg. 789, Rites & Ceremonies).
In Mesoamerica as in the Old World, the Amanita muscaria mushroom is later replaced in the Soma ritual by several different species of psilocybin mushrooms, in the areas where the Amanita muscaria and Amanita pantherina mushrooms (also intoxicating) are not available or not abundant, unlike the psilocybin mushroom which are found in abundance throughout Mesoamerica, as reported by Fray Sahagun in the sixteenth-century. The psilocybin mushroom is indigenous to the sub-tropical regions of the U.S, Mexico, and Central America.
"It is common for cultures to adopt surrogates (such as alcoholic “spirits”) in the traditional role of the entheogen [God producing mushroom] which then becomes known to only a small minority, or lost completely. In such cases, artistic or mythological elements often preserve some distinguishable traces of the plant-god"(Mark Hoffman 2004, p.115).
"What I think happened is that in the world of prehistory all religion was experiential, and it was based on the pursuit of ecstasy through plants. And at some time, very early, a group interposed itself between people and direct experience of the 'Other.' This created hierarchies, priesthoods, theological systems, castes, ritual, taboos." (Wikipeida.org).
" The mushroom is most correctly seen as an androgynous shape-shifting deity, which can take various forms depending on the predisposition of the culture encountering it" (Food of the Gods, 1992 p.63).
According to Samuel N.C. Lieu, author of Manichaeism in Central Asia and China, 1998:154)
"Manichaeans wore white dress when attending meetings and that their insatiable need for frankincense and red mushrooms had caused a dramatic rise in the price of these two commodities".
The Vedic-Hindu gods and goddesses of East Indian philosophy are in many ways very similar to the pantheon of gods and goddesses of Mesoamerica, for they too derived much of their strength from the sacrifices of men. In Hindu mythology Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma, make up the Hindu Trinity of gods. In Hinduism, Vishnu is the preserver and protector of creation in the Hindu Trinity of Gods.
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Wasson proposed (1957) that the religious use of the Amanita muscaria mushroom was widespread in the Old World. The author has discovered encoded mushroom imagery in areas as far distant as the Indus Valley of southwest Asia. The mushroom ritual shared by these people was intended, to establish direct communication between Earth and sky, in order to unite man with god.
The author would strongly argue that the ceramic female figurines above, all from the Harappa culture, Indus Valley civilization (3rd–2nd century B.C.) esoterically encode the Amanita muscaria mushroom into the headdress of the Earth Goddess, "Hidden in Plain Sight". The art style of encoding mushroom imagery in Vedic-Hindu and Buddhist art has led the author to conclude that the sacred mushroom cult of the New World did not develop independently, but rather, it was brought to the New World, long before the voyages of Columbus. Sacred mushrooms were so cleverly encoded in the religious art of both the Old World and New World that prior to the author's study they virtually escaped detection.
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Of all the Scythian-Sakas the best-known Saka was Siddhartha Gautama, the man who became Buddha. He was the son of King Suddhodana Gautama, and Queen Maya. Siddhartha, who became known as Guatama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. He was known among his own people as Shakyamuni, "the sage of the Shakya Tribe", the son of Suddhodana the chosen leader of the Śākya Gaṇarājya (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Shakya).
Gautama Buddha was also called Sakyasinha "the Lion of the Sakya Tribe", and Guatama was the name of the royal family of the Saka kingdom. The Kalachakra are the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni, passed down from the original seven Dharmarajas of the legendary kingdom of Shambhala, The first notable king of Shambhala, King Suchandra (c. 900 to 876 BC.E) who is reported to have requested teaching from the Buddha. Note: "the Kalachakra calculations put the life of Shakyamuni Buddha quite a bit earlier than what is generally accepted" (Wikipeda).
"Now if, as seems likely, the Chinese once worshiped an hallucinogenic mushroom and employed it in religious ritual and medicine, and if some of their sages reached the New World, by accident or design, they could of course have introduced some of their own advanced pharmacological knowledge, or at least the idea of sacred mushrooms, to the ancient Mexicans. The same would apply to early India, whose calendrical system, like that of China, bears a perplexing resemblance to its pre-Hispanic Mexican counterpart" (Furst, 1976 p.104).
"...according to a scribe in the court of Emperor Laing Wu Ti, a Buddhist missionary claimed that he had returned from a trip to Fu Sang in the year 498 AD. The missionary Hui Shen, said that he had left China on a pilgrimage to spread the blessing of the Buddha to the lands of barbarians across the Eastern Ocean. He visited a a country that was situated 20,000 li (or about 6000 miles) to the east of Siberia. That would place Fu Sang in the vicinity of Mexico." (Thompson 2010, p.65).
The Mogao Caves, also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, located in Gansu Province of China. The mural above portrays the Buddha sitting on what appears to be a feline throne, surrounded by sacred mushrooms. The Mogao Cave Grottoes contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out 366 AD., and form a system of 492 temples as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. The caves are strongly linked to the history of transcontinental relations via the Silk Road, and of the spread of Buddhism and Manichaeism throughout Asia. (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/440). On the right is a Buddhist mural titled "The Awakened One", that portrays the Buddha sitting under the World Tree, stylized as a trefoil symbol (from Po Win Daung, Myanmar).
"Soma is a very difficult deity for many outside of India to comprehend. He works on numerous levels, all of which are tied together rather strangely. Soma is firstly a plant. He is also an intoxicating drink which was brewed from that plant. As the blood of animals and the sap of plants, Soma courses through all living things. He is Inspiration to those who seek it, and so he is the god of poets. He is also the god of the moon. He is the dwelling place of the venerated dead, as well as the divine cure for evil. The ancient Hindus did not differentiate between these divergent aspects; all were the god Soma." (from SOMA /CHANDRA -GOD OF THE MOON)
Quoting Wasson:
"Now if, as seems likely, the Chinese once worshiped an hallucinogenic mushroom and employed it in religious ritual and medicine, and if some of their sages reached the New World, by accident or design, they could of course have introduced some of their own advanced pharmacological knowledge, or at least the idea of sacred mushrooms, to the ancient Mexicans. The same would apply to early India, whose calendrical system, like that of China, bears a perplexing resemblance to its pre-Hispanic Mexican counterpart" (Furst, 1976 p.104).
Ethno-archaeologist Peter Furst:
"Little is known of the pre-Hispanic mushroom use in South America, with the single exception of an early Jesuit report from Peru that the Yurimagua Indians, who have since become extinct, intoxicated themselves with a mushroom that was vaguely described as a "tree fungus" (Furst, 1976 p.82).
In the northern Peruvian highlands of South America, the ancient Chavín civilization flourished, that in many ways paralleled the contemporary Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica. Both were major early civilizations and both used feline images in their sacred iconography. Pioneer archaeologist Marshall H. Saville was the first to call attention to certain Mesoamerican influences he called "Mayoid" in archaeological material from the Ecuadorian and Peruvian highlands and Pacific coastal areas of South America (Saville, 1907, 1909, 1910). Since Saville's first observation numerous archaeologists have reported other apparent artistic and ideological similarities between the two areas dating from as early as the Preclassic and continuing through the Postclassic, a time span from 1500 B.C. to A.D.1400. There is now a consensus that this exchange likely occurred by sea (see Stephan de Borhegyi Oct. 1960, Pre-Columbian Cultural Connections between Mesoamerica and Ecuador).
Moche portrait vessels (above) from Peru, South America. The figures all wear mushroom inspired headdresses, encoded with the Amanita muscaria mushroom. The Moche culture reigned on the north coast of Peru during the years 100-800 A.D.
Above on the far left is a pre-Columbian drinking vessel that depicts the fruit from the legendary Tree of Life, as encoded sacred mushrooms in profile (Source: Metropolitan Museum 1978.412.113) (photgraph of Amanita muscaria by Productora de hongos y Micelio E.I. fungi).
According to Landa:
"The Indians are very dissolute in drinking and becoming intoxicated, and many ills follow their excesses, in this way. They kill each other; violate their beds, the poor women thinking they are receiving their own husbands; they treat their own fathers and mothers as if they were in the houses of enemies; they set fire to their houses and so destroy themselves in their drunkenness"...."Their wine they make of honey and water and the root of a certain tree they grow for the purpose, and which gives the wine strength and a very disagreeable odor (Yucatan Before and After the Conquest, 1978 p35).
Quoting Borhegyi:
"The game must have required individual prowess and vigorous play, if one can judge by the contorted "acrobat" positions of the players; and the game surely involved some form of competition. The fact that contorted "acrobat" ballplayer figurines and effigy vessels were known not only from Tlatilco, but also from Colima, Oaxaca and southern Veracruz in Mexico, and from Kaminaljuyu in Guatemala, would indicate that the game was already widespread during Pre-Classic times" (S.F. de Borhegyi 1980 p. 2-3).
John L. Sorenson author of, A Complex of Ritual and Ideology Shared by Mesoamerica and the Ancient Near East, 2009:"English anthropologist Edward Tylor (1878a; 1878b) pointed out numerous details in common in the setup and rules governing these games in Mexico and India. He concluded that since we do not know from historical sources how the similarities might have been transmitted from one area to the other, “all we can argue is that communication of some sort there was.” He found it impossible to accept that human minds had twice invented the same set of arbitrary notions. The only satisfying explanation for parallels of such specificity as pachisi and patolli display is that the two occurrences were indeed historically related through some contact that has not so far been identified. Anthropologist Robert Lowie observed about this case that “the concatenation of details puts the parallels far outside any probability [of their having originated independently]”.
"The mystic spirit of "Olmec" art suggests the presence of highly intellectual sorcerers, who may have developed the astronomical knowledge basic for weather predictions and time-reckoning, culminating in the development of such liturgical traits as religious architecture, secret symbolic art, and glyphic writing." "Olmec art has significant traits suggesting an early stage in the development of the Classic cultures, particularly the Maya, Teotihuacan, Tajin, and Monte Alban" (1954:79)
The rise of the ancient Olmec in the New World has puzzled archaeologists for some time. The Olmec, the first complex civilization of the New World emerge from the hot, humid jungles of the Gulf Coast of what is now present day Mexico, sometime around 1500-1200 B.C. Archaeologists contend that the Olmec culture appears to come from out of nowhere in full bloom at the site of San Lorenzo, in Veracruz, Mexico. Considered one of the worst possible environments for spontaneous cultural evolution we find the oldest evidence of mathematics and written dates in the New World (Man Across the Sea 1971 p.38).
Even in the New World, the Amanita muscaria mushroom continues to be the classic symbol of enchanted forests, the kind of place where fairies, gnomes, and elves dwell. The word gnome comes from the Latin gnoma, meaning "knowledge", suggesting gnomes as the "all knowing ones". One of the effects of the Amanita muscaria mushroom experience is to see objects as gigantic in size. According to Wasson, among the various tribes in Siberia where the inebriating mushroom Soma has survived, words used for, or to describe the Amanita muscaria mushroom personify it as "little men."
According to ethno-mycologist Gastón Guzmán, one of the effects of the Amanita muscaria mushroom experience is to see objects as gigantic in size. The Amanita muscaria mushroom, considered a poisonous mushroom by many contains muscimol and ibotenic acid, the toxins or chemicals that cause the powerful psychoactive effects (Gaston Guzman, Sacred Mushrooms and Man: 2013 p.489) (photograph by Higinio Gonzalez of Puebla, Mexico).
Above is a figurine from Nayarit, Western Mexico, dated 100 C.E-, depicting an individual sitting under a gigantic Amanita muscaria mushroom. The figurine, which is 7.5 cm tall, is now in the INAH Regional Museum in Guadalajara, Mexico.
"The little red topped mushroom with white polka dots occur frequently in Hungarian folktales, usually in connection with little dwarfs who live under them" (letter from de Borhegyi to Wasson April 29th, 1953 Wasson archives, Harvard University)
In both Nahua and Maya mythology a dwarf often accompanies the deceased into the Underworld. According to Wasson 1957, among the various tribes in Siberia where the inebriating mushroom ritual has survived, words used for, or to describe the Amanita muscaria mushroom personify it as dwarves, elves or "little men."
Above is a Late Classic period (500-900 CE.) Maya figurine K2853 from the Justin Kerr Data Base. The figurine is of a bearded gnome, or dwarf-like figure holding a shield, and wearing what I have proposed is a headdress encoded with an upside down Amanita muscaria mushroom. One of the effects of the Amanita muscaria mushroom experience is to see objects as gigantic in size (photograph of mushroom copyrighted Esther van de Belt ).
Not enough is known about the Olmec people, the language which they spoke, what they may have called themselves, and where this ancient civilization originally came from. Carbon 14 dates place Olmec civilization at San Lorenzo at 1200 B.C. E. (M. D. Coe, 1970, p.21). We know very little about the religious beliefs of the Olmecs and their contemporary neighbors, other than they apparently revered the hallucinogenic Amanita muscaria mushroom, which they portrayed in small stone sculptures known as mushroom stones that are now being interpreted as evidence for the usage of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Mesoamerican religion spanning almost 3,000 years (S.F de Borhegyi 1957, 1961, 1963, 1965a, 1965b).
"The two prevailing theories hold that the Maya either arose independently in what is now Guatemala, Belize, southern Mexico, and western Honduras; or that it developed as a result of the influence of the older Olmec culture" (American Archaeology, summer 2013 by Tamara Stewart).
It's at the Olmec site of La Venta, where we find the earliest known relief sculpture of the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl in Mesoamerica, on Monument 19. Prior to La Venta, the first Olmec culture to emerge in Mesoamerica was at San Lorenzo in the modern day state of Veracruz (1200-900 BCE).
Quoting ethno-archaeologist Peter T. Furst:
"It is tempting to suggest that the Olmecs might have been instrumental in the spread of mushroom cults throughout Mesoamerica, as they seem to have been of other significant aspects of early Mexican civilization..." It is in fact a common phenomenon of South American shamanism (reflected also in Mesoamerica) that shamans are closely identified with the jaguar, to the point where the jaguar is almost nowhere regarded as simply an animal, albeit an especially powerful one, but as supernatural, frequently as the avatar of living or deceased shamans, containing their souls and doing good or evil in accordance with the disposition of their human form" (Furst 1976, pp. 48, 79)."
Above are male and female figurines from Western Mexico Zacatecas culture 2nd century CE, in which the artist cleverly encodes the Amanita muscaria mushroom, "Hidden In Plain Sight". (The photograph in the center is from http://realhistoryww.com/ )
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Photograph © Justin Kerr
Maya Vase painting K2797 photographed in roll out form by Justin Kerr. The Late Classic vase painting above is a great example of esoteric mushroom-inspired art, as it relates to the "mirror ceremony". First and foremost, the figure in the vase painting on the far left clearly holds a sacred mushroom in his hand, and appears to be offering it to a Maya deity seated directly in front of him. Archaeologists have named this Maya God K'awil and he has been identified by scholars as God K from the Maya codices. The Maya god K'awil is recognizable by his one-leg with serpent foot, and a smoking tube, or obsidian mirror, or axehead, that penetrates his forehead. These attributes are metaphors of the power to penetrate, or enter, into the Underworld. In Maya mythology K'awil who is often depicted as a one legged god symbolized a bolt of lightning which, by penetrating the ground and entering the underworld, could create new life in a place of death and decay. According to David Freidel, the axe or smoking tube through the forehead signaled that the person was in the state of transformation embodied by the power of lightning (Freidel 1993:194, 199). In both scenes the figure who has summoned the god K'awil to the underworld is depicted in jaguar spots and wears a mushroom-inspired headdress.
"We have drunk the Soma and become Immortal; we have attained the Light, and found the Gods". (Rig Veda, 8.XLVIII.3)
"...as the most ancient and sacred of all Maya deities, these three gods played a crucial role in the earliest symbolism of kingship that we saw at Cerros, Tikal, and Uaxactun " (Maya Cosmos 1993).
"The Popol Vuh of the Quiché Maya speaks of three creator gods, and many Mesoamerican sites had a triad of gods. Each polity had a different set of names for their three deities. Some speculate that is why Christianity was accepted so readily by the natives. After the Spanish Conquest, a Spanish priest by the name of Francisco Hernandez studied the natives and concluded the Indians already believed in the Trinity.
Evidence of a trinity of gods among the ancient Maya was also supplied by Ethno-mycologist Bernard Lowy, who linked sacred mushrooms with lightning and a creation myth, and a trinity of creator gods associated with divine rulership. He reported that cakulha was not only the Quiché term for thunderbolt but is also the Quiché Maya name for the Amanita muscaria mushroom (Lowy, 1974: 189). The Quiche speakers do not know why Amanita muscaria (cakulha, spelled kakulja in Wasson 1980:229) is the word for lightning-bolt god and no longer think of the word's meaning when they use it, but cakulha is the god of the lightning-bolt and that this Quiche term is found in the Popol Vuh (Wasson 1980:229).
Quoting Bernard Lowy:
"Kakulja is one of a trinity of gods referred to in the Popol Vuh as "Kakulja Huracan" which enigmatically refers to "a single leg" that is, the single shaft of the thunderbolt. Where this shaft struck the earth the miraculous mushroom Amanita muscaria arose. Relating this to Vedic myth, we have a further, unexpected verification of the meaning of Soma. Does not this "single leg" also reveal the meaning of the riddle cited by Wasson in the traditional verse sung by German children..."Sag' wer mag das Mannlein sein Das da steht auf einem Bein ?" (Bernard Lowy, Ethnomycological Inferences from Mushroom stones, Maya Codices, and Tzutuhil Legend 1980 pp.94-103)
Evidence of a Trinity of gods can be seen in the carved head above of a three-in-one deity from Veracruz, Mexico, and below in the two tripod Type B. effigy mushroom stones from Highland Guatemala.
Mushroom stones that have a circular groove around the base of the cap are classified as Type B, and according to Borhegyi without exception, are of Early and Late Pre-Classic date (1000 BCE.-A.D. 200)
Quoting ethno-archaeologist Peter T. Furst:
" It is in fact a common phenomenon of South American shamanism (reflected also in Mesoamerica) that shamans are closely identified with the jaguar, to the point where the jaguar is almost nowhere regarded as simply an animal, albeit an especially powerful one, but as supernatural, frequently as the avatar of living or deceased shamans, containing their souls and doing good or evil in accordance with the disposition of their human form" (Furst 1976, pp. 48, 79)."
Above on the upper left, is a ceramic pre-Columbian mask that depicts the transformation of a human into a "were-jaguar," a half-human, half-jaguar deity first described and named in 1955 by archaeologist Matthew W. Stirling. The were-jaguar appears in the art of the ancient Olmecs as early as 1200 B.C. A closer look, you will see a Amanita muscaria mushroom encoded into the head and nose of the human side, while the left half of the mask depicts the effect of the Amanita mushroom as resulting in were-jaguar transformation. The mask symbolizes the soul's journey into the underworld where it will undergo jaguar transformation, ritual decapitation and divine resurrection (photo above of the "Were Jaguar" from Prof. Gian Carlo Bojani Director of the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy) (Photo of Amanita muscaria by Richard Fortey).
Above is Maya vase painting K7289 photographed in rollout form by Justin Kerr. The vase painting depicts a ruler or priest wearing jaguar attire and a jaguar headdress and what appears as an Amanita muscaria mushroom inspired ceremonial cloak. The ruler or priest holds in his hands a ceremonial bar from which the vision serpent known to Maya scholars as the Och Chan emerges, along with a deity who emerges from the jaws of the vision serpent blowing a conch shell.
Above is a Late Classic period (500 - 900 C.E.) Maya vase painting that depicts a priest or ruler wearing a jaguar headdress and holding in both hands what appears to be a mirror and an Amanita muscaria mushroom.
Many of the mushroom images involved rituals of self-sacrifice and decapitation in the Underworld, alluding to the sun's nightly death and subsequent resurrection from the Underworld by a pair of deities associated with the planet Venus as both the Morning Star and Evening star. This dualistic aspect of Venus is why Venus was venerated as both a God of Life and God of Death. Ballcourts and caves and pools of water were believed to be portals or entrances to the underworld. The intention of the mushroom ritual was to open communication directly with the spirit world, often through a form of animal transformation into a were-jaguar.
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As early 850 B.C. the were-jaguar cult begins to appear in South America in the religious art of the Chavin and Paracas cultures. The painted textile above from the Chimu culture of Peru, 1000-1400 C.E. depicts a ruler or deity standing astride what appears to be an Amanita muscaria mushroom. The fanged figure undergoing jaguar transformation is accompanied by twin jaguars, and twin birds. Both are esoteric symbols of the dualistic aspect of the planet Venus as a resurrection star. This dualistic aspect of Venus as both the Morningstar and Evening Star is why Venus was venerated as both a God of Life and Death. The encoded mushroom, and three-step design located in the deities headdress, are both motifs that symbolizes the descent into the Underworld.
While at first glance the face of the "Weeping Gods" gives the illusion of a deity with dangling or disembodied eye-balls. As I discovered, if you look closely, you will see that the dangling eyeballs are actually encoded Amanita muscaria mushrooms "Hidden In Plain Sight." Dangling eye-balls or even encoded tears likely represent the trance under the influence of the sacred mushroom. The photo of the "Weeping God" above is from VanKirk, Jacques, and Parney Bassett-VanKirk, Remarkable Remains of the Ancient Peoples of Guatemala, Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1996.) (Photo of Amanita muscaria by Ryan Darwish)
According to Borhegyi:
"...fanged anthropomorphic individuals with dangling eyeballs, are commonly associated with the god Quetzalcoatl in his form of Ehecatl the Wind God" ( S.F. de Borhegyi 1980:17).
"It [the mushroom] permits you to see, more clearly than our perishing mortal eye can see, vistas beyond the horizons of this life, to travel backwards and forwards in time, to enter other planes of existence, even (as the Indians say) to know God." (Wasson and Wasson, 1957)
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"He who eats many of these sees many things which make him afraid or make him laugh. He flees, hangs himself, or hurls himself from a cliff".
"The Nahua did not know they were dealing with a mere drug, as we say, a chemical compound with a known molecular structure and a known impact on the human mind. They were dealing with a miraculous, a divine gift" (Wasson, The Wondrous Mushroom; 1980 p.80-81)
Above is a sixteenth-century painting of teonanacatl, the sacred mushroom of the Aztecs, from the Florentine Codex, written by Bernadino de Sahagun. The Florentine Codex, is a compilation of well documented ethnographic information of Aztec culture recorded by Spanish chronicler Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, organized into twelve books consisting of over 2400 pages and over 2000 illustrations.
Above is a sixteenth-century painting from the Florentine Codex, Book 11, by Bernadino de Sahagun. The image, painted by an Indian artist, depicts a seated figure wearing a white robe, drinking from a goblet. Note that directly in front of the seated figure are two mushroom caps next to a mushroom stem or stipe. According to Fray Sahagun, Spanish ecclesiastics were horrified by the sacramental use of several mushrooms known in Nahuatl as teonanacatl meaning "God's flesh".
Motolinía recorded...
“They had another way of drunkenness, that made them more cruel and it was with some fungi or small mushrooms, which exist in this land as in Castilla; but those of this land are of such a kind that eaten raw and being bitter they....eat with them a little bees honey; and a while later they would see a thousand visions, especially serpents, and as they would be out of their senses, it would seem to them that their legs and bodies were full of worms eating them alive, and thus half rabid, they would sally forth from the house, wanting someone to kill them; and with this bestial drunkenness and travail that they were feeling, it happened sometimes that they hanged themselves, and also against others they were crueler. These mushrooms, they called in their language teonanacatl, which means 'flesh of God' or the devil, whom they worshiped.” (Wasson and de Borhegyi 1962, The Hallucinogenic Mushrooms of Mexico and Psilocybin)
"The Nahua [Aztecs] before the Spaniards arrived called them [referring to sacred mushrooms] "God's flesh", teonanacatl. I need hardly draw attention to a disquieting parallel, the designation of the Elements in our Eucharist: "Take, eat, this is my body ..."; and again, "Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear son..." But there is one difference. The orthodox Christian must accept on faith the miracle of the conversion of the bread into God's flesh: that is what is meant by the doctrine of transubstantiation. By contrast, the mushroom of the Nahua carries its own conviction: every communicant will testify to the miracle that he has experienced" (Peter T. Furst 1972, pp191-192).
Quoting Fray Diego Duran:
"They became so inebriated and witless that many of them took their lives in their hands. With the strength of these mushrooms, they saw visions and had revelations about the future, since the devil spoke to them in their madness".
Spanish chronicler, and cleric Jacinto de la Serna, composed a guide for the clergy in 1650 titled Manuel de Ministros de Indies para el Conocimiento de sus Idolatnas y Extirpation de Ellas, (Wasson and Wasson 1957, p. 226). More commonly known today as "The Manuscript of Serna". there is a passage that describes the use of sacred mushrooms for divination, prophecy, and communion with the spirit world.
"These mushrooms were small and yellowish and to collect them the priest and all men appointed as ministers went to the hills and remained almost the whole night in sermonizing and praying".
Mesoamericans in general believed that the god known as Quetzalcoatl created both the universe and humankind. Quetzalcoatl the god-king and culture hero, gave mankind mushrooms to establish communication between earth and sky. This is recorded in the Codex Vindobonensis. Page 24, of the codex depicts the divine establishment of the ritual consumption of sacred mushrooms ( Peter Furst, 1981, pp.151-155). A thousand years of history is covered in the Mixtec Codices, and Quetzalcóatl, known to the Mixtecs as 9-Wind, is cited as the great founder of all the royal dynasties (photo below from the British Museum).
Above on page 24, Quetzalcoatl is depicted carrying a mushroom god on his back, and making a hand gesture to the god Tlaloc, pointing his fingers up and down to open a mushroom portal to the underworld of Venus resurrection (photo from the British Museum).
In Aztec mythology the Mexican god Tlaloc, who shared the same temple with Quetzalcoatl at the great city of Teotihuacan, also represents the ninth lord, of the Nine Lords of the Night, associated with death, decapitation and time's completion, and that his calendrical name was 9-Ocelotl (Facts and Artifacts of Ancient Middle America, 1978 p.164).
Quoting Stephan F. de Borhegyi
"In the concept of the Tlalocan, Teotihuacan offered something tangible, something desirable, a rich and readily available compensation that no previous Mesoamerican culture was able to offer" (Stephan de Borhegyi 1971, "Man Across the Sea" p.91).
"...the Tlalocan, closely parallels the immense popularity of the Hellenistic mystery cults and redeeming religions with their concepts of trial on earth followed by a happy afterlife in heaven, and salvation through initiation and knowledge of God, concepts that continued to play an important role in Christianity and in Gnosticism" (Stephan de Borhegyi 1971, "Man Across the Sea" p.91).
Aztec poems recorded by Spanish scribes, speak of a land called Tamoanchan, which translated from the Mayan language means "Land of the Serpent". It was said that "this was a land settled long before the founding of Teotihuacan, where there was a government for a long time, and it was a paradise of gods, ancestors, and humans".
According to Aztec legend, Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl created mankind from the bones he stole from the Underworld Death God, whose decapitated head Quetzalcoatl holds in his hand in the scene above. Note the tears of gratitude on the young figure sitting immediately opposite Quetzalcoatl. This individual, and those who sit behind Quetzalcoatl also hold sacred mushrooms and some appear to have fangs. Fangs suggest that, under the magical influence of the mushroom, they have been transformed in the Underworld into the underworld jaguar.
Above are four Type C, monkey effigy mushroom stones. An analysis of the Dresden Codex identifies the monkey, itself, as being related to Venus as the Morning Star (Susan Milbrath, Star Gods of the Maya: 1999, p. 256 ), and according to the Five Suns cosmogonic accounts Quetzalcoatl in his guise as Ehecatl, presided over the second sun, ehecatonatiuh, the sun of wind, until it was destroyed by great winds. The survivors of that era were turned into monkeys and Quetzalcoatl was their ruler (Mary Miller and Karl Taube 1993; p.118).
"The cache of nine miniature mushroom stones demonstrates considerable antiquity for the "mushroom-stone cult," and suggests a possible association with the nine lords of the night and gods of the underworld, as well as the possible existence of a nine-day cycle and nocturnal count in Preclassic times. The association of the miniature mushroom stones with the miniature metates and manos greatly strengthens the possibility that at least in some areas in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica metates were used to grind the sacred hallucinatory mushrooms to prepare them for ceremonial consumption." (de Borhegyi 1961: 498-504)
" The lords used these symbols of rule, which came from where the sun rises, to pierce and cut up their bodies (for the blood sacrifice). There were nine mushroom stones for the Ajpop and the Ajpop Q'amja, and in each case four, three, two, and one staffs with the Quetzal's feathers and green feathers, together with garlands, the Chalchihuites precious stones, with the sagging lower jaw and the bundle of fire for the Temezcal steam bath." (Sachse, 2001, 363).
Anthropologist Alice B. Kehoe...
"China and Mesoamerica shared the complication of two simultaneous calendars, of differing lengths, that meshed like cogwheels, arriving at the same day starting point every so many years, 52 for Mesoamerica, 60 for China". (Alice B. Kehoe, 2008, Controversies In Archaeology, p.162).
Diffusionists will argue that the best piece of evidence for trans-Pacific contact, is that both India and Mesoamerica shared a similar calendar, and that the sophistication in both calendars could not have been a duplicate invention. Kelley (1960) and anthropologist Paul Kirchhoff (1964) detail a large number of exact correspondences between the Hindu and Mexican calendars and their religious and mythological associations, suggesting diffusion from India or Southeast Asia to Mexico (Man Across the Sea: Problems of Pre-Columbian Contacts: 1971, p. 36-37).
Quoting Maya archaeologist David H. Kelley:
"Much of Aztec religion looks like a modified Hinduism in which one important change was the deliberate abandonment of religious eroticism" (Man Across the Sea, 1971, p.62).
Kirchhoff presented various arguments during the International Congress of Americanists in 1962 in his claim that early contact existed between India and the peoples of Mesoamerica. Kirchhoff was also of the opinion that the Aztec and Maya ritual calendar was a Chinese invention. (The Ancient Past of Mexico 1966, Alma M. Reed p.41-42), and Dr. George C. Vaillant noted that at the ancient site of Zacatenco, in the central valley of Mexico, a settlement that flourished around 1100 B.C., had burials with bodies covered with red cinnabar and buried with jade funerary offerings, a burial custom also found in China (Alma Reed, 1966, p.17).
"New data and new techniques of analysis will eventually show that a great many contacts have occurred between far separated cultures, and more sophisticated analyses of the processes of cultural change will eventually allow clear-cut positive or negative conclusions about many cases that now remain in doubt."
Parallel to Mesoamerican mythology, the early Vedics, Hindus, Buddhists, and Persian Zoroastrians, all had a similar belief in four great eras or world periods that ended in cataclysm prior to the present, fifth, and final world. Hindu scriptures, like Aztec legends, speak of four past ages, the fifth world age being that of the present age. That each of these ages was ended by a great cataclysms that nearly destroyed mankind. These world ages are terminated by three kinds of destruction,
involving wind, fire, and water.
A number of years ago the author noticed the turtle (below) in a drawing by Daniela Epstein, of a ballcourt panel at the archaeological site of El Tajin, in Veracruz Mexico. "I knew right away that this ballcourt panel depicted a Mesoamerican version of the Hindu/Buddhist myth known as "The Churning of the Milk's Ocean", a creation story often depicted in Buddhist and Hindu art. The Churning of the Milk Ocean, or the Churning of the Ocean's Milk, (depicted above) is a creation story told in several ancient Hindu texts. At the suggestion of Lord Vishnu, the gods, and demons churn the primeval ocean in order to obtain Amrita, which will guarantee them immortality (Kangra painting eighteenth century). The avatar of the Vedic-Hindu god Vishnu is the sea turtle depicted below as the pivot point for Mt. Mantara acting as the churning stick.
The drawing above by Daniela Epstein is of a ball court relief panel from El Tajin in Veracruz, Mexico, associated with Building 4.
According to Vedic,Hindu, and Buddhist literature, the Gods got together at the beginning of time and churned the ocean to extract a substance which would offer them immortality. Gordon Wasson postulated (1968) that the mysterious Soma in Vedic literature, was a beverage of immortality, described as the most precious liquid in the universe, and a "heavenly liquor" that was guarded by a Serpent. In the drawing above by Daniela Epstein, a two-headed serpent lurks below at the bottom of the scene, emerging from the ocean's depth. In Hindu-Buddhist mythology the turtle represents the avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu who acts as the central pivot point, below the churning mechanism which is composed of intertwined serpents being pulled at both ends by sky deities (deities at the four cardinal directions) who create the new born Sun.
For instance, Jeffery Wilkerson describes a much different version of this ballcourt panel scene in the book, The Mesoamerican Ballgame (1991, p. 54-55). He says the scene portrays the prerogatives of rulership within the ritual ballgame format of El Tajin. He proposes an altar that depicts two serpents intertwined to form a tlaxmalacatl or ballgame marker, that has been "modified by a spear bundle, a symbol of warfare in late Mesoamerican times". He does mention a vat of ritual drink with a reptilian guardian.
According to Ethno-mycologist Bernard Lowy:
"Maya codices has revealed that the Maya and their contemporaries knew and utilized psychotropic mushrooms in the course of their magico-religious ceremonial observances" (Lowy:1981) .
The murals above are from Structure 16, the Temple of the Frescoes, at the Late Post Classic fortified city of Tulum, on the eastern coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico. The art at these ruins include encoded Amanita muscaria mushrooms "hidden in plain site". Mixteca-Puebla is an art style that emerges after the fall of Tula, that dominated Central Mexico, that is clearly Mixteca, with the creative center in Cholula, that blends the art styles of Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, and Veracruz. A closer look of the murals uncovers several encoded mushrooms in scenes with a deity identified as the aged Moon Goddess. Tulum was dedicated to a cult of the lunar goddesses, especially the aged aspects of the moon associated with the waning moon, and may have been part of a pilgrimage route associated with female cults especially connected with childbirth (Susan Milbrath 1999, p.148). Tulum was also an important center for the worship of the Diving sky God, a deity portrayed on the Temple of the Frescoes (Structure 16) and on the Temple of the Diving God (Structure 5). (Photographs of Tulum murals taken by Fadrique R. Diego).
Bartolome de las Casas, a Bishop of Chiapas in the mid-1500s, reported that: "after the sun, which they [the Aztecs] held as their principal god, they honored and worshiped a certain star more than any other denizen of the heavens or earth, because they held it as certain that their god Quetzalcóatl, the highest god of the Cholulans, when he died transformed into this star" (Christenson, 2007: 205). Las Casas further noted that the Indians awaited the appearance of this star in the east each day, and that when it appeared their priests offered many sacrifices, including incense and their own blood (Christenson, 2007: 205).
In a passage from the Anales de Cuauhtitlán...
"At the time when the planet was visible in the sky (as evening star) Quetzalcoatl died. And when Quetzalcoatl was dead he was not seen for 4 days; they say that he dwelt in the underworld, and for 4 more days he was bone (that is, he was emaciated, he was weak); not until 8 days had passed did the great star appear; that is, as the morning star. They said that then Quetzalcoatl ascended the throne as god".
In the religion of the ancient Maya, various twins or brothers represent the dualistic aspects of the planet Venus, as both a Morningstar and Evening star. This dualistic aspect of Venus is why Venus was venerated as both a God of Life and God of Death. In Aztec mythology the cosmos was intimately linked to the planet Venus in its form as the Evening Star, which guides the sun through the Underworld at night, as the skeletal god Xolotl, the twin brother of Quetzalcoatl. As mentioned earlier, the Morningstar, Quetzalcoatl's avatar was the harpy eagle. Among the Quiche Maya, Venus in its form as the Morningstar, was called iqok'ij, meaning the "sunbringer" or "carrier of the sun or day." (Tedlock, 1993:236). It was said that they [the Quiche] gave thanks to the sun and moon and stars, but particularly to the star that proclaims the day, the day-bringer, referring to Venus as the Morningstar (The Title of the Lords of Totonicapan, 1953 third printing 1974, p.184).
Maya creation stories record that twins were responsible for placing the three stones of creation into the night sky at the beginning of this world age. These three stones, which represent the three original hearthstones of Maya creation, refer to a trinity of gods responsible for creating life from death. One of these gods, known as First Father, ruled as the Sun God in the previous world age. He was decapitated by the Lords of Death after being defeated in a ballgame. His twin sons, after finding his bones buried under the floor of the ballcourt, resurrected him from the underworld. As the planet Venus, Quetzalcoatl in his impersonation of Tlaloc, rules the underworld, and is responsible for ritual decapitation, at the place of ballgame sacrifice. In the Annals of Cuauhtitlán (Nahua manuscripts) it is recorded that it was Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl who invented the ballgame, and wherever a temple stood dedicated to Quetzalcóatl, there existed a ballcourt (Nicholson, 1967: 117).
Quoting Maya archaeologist Dr. Herbert Spinden:"Many authorities consider God B to represent Kukulcan, the Feathered Serpent, whose Aztec equivalent is Quetzalcoatl (Spinden 1975 p.62).
The Itzas of Yucatan who were "Mexicanized" Chontal Maya called their God-King Kukulkan, a Mayan name for both snake and sky. Most historians believe that the God-king Kukulkan and the Mexican god-king Quetzacoatl, were one and the same man.
Photographs © Justin Kerr
In Mesoamerica sacred mushrooms were almost certainly consumed before battle to induce what must have been believed to be superhuman strength. Above are two Late Classic (500-900 C.E.) figurines, both from Jaina Island (far left and far right) representing warriors wearing what the author proposes are headdresses encoded with sacred mushrooms. Jaina Island is a small island not far from the Laguna de Terminos region, that was controlled in Late Classic times by the Chontal speaking Maya. It may be that the encoded mushrooms depicted on the warrior's headdresses are shown with their stems bifurcated at the base, which according to mycologist Gaston Guzman may be an anthropomorphic interpretation as legs (Gaston Guzman, 2013 Sacred Mushrooms and Man: p. 489).
In examining the gold Aztec warrior, it's tempting to think that the secret technique of gold granulation, whereby the surface of the object is covered in spherules or granules made from the same gold material as the base to which they are attached, a notoriously difficult technique, was brought to the New World in ancient times --the Roman historian Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24 - AD 79) immortalized the secret technique in his biographical accounts (Gold granulation Wikipeda).
“Those who have mastered the mushrooms arrive at an extraordinary command of their faculties and muscular movements: their sense of timing is heightened. I have already suggested that the players had ingested the mushrooms before they entered upon the game. If the mushroom stones were related to the ball game, it remains to be discovered what role they played”. (Wasson 1957, from Mushrooms Russia & History, p. 178)
The ritual use of intoxicating enemas for spiritual transformation has been described in the earliest Spanish accounts of native customs. The ritual use of enemas, although poorly understood, is commonly represented in Maya vase paintings. Such a device was used as a means to avoid vomiting and to achieve the altered state of consciousness required for self-sacrifice.
Photograph © Justin Kerr
Maya vase K5172, photographed in roll-out form, depicts an enema ritual associated with the ballgame. On the left is a figure of ballplayer wearing a ballgame yoke and deer headdress. The ballplayer crouches down on one knee, and holds what may be an Amanita muscaria mushroom in his right hand and an enema apparatus in the other. A mushroom infusion administered by means of an enema would have a much quicker and more powerful effect on the body than one ingested orally.
Photographs © Justin Kerr
Maya Vase painting K8662 in roll-out form, depicts four separate scenes read from left to right. Here a priest or shaman, prepares what appears to be a mushroom infused enema, based on scene number three which depicts what may be a large plate-size Amanita muscaria mushroom in front of the priest. Scene four depicts the priest holding the enema device.
"They [the Toltecs] could do practically anything, nothing seemed to difficult for them; they cut the greenstone, they melted gold, and all this came from Quetzalcoatl - arts and knowledge." - Fray Bernandino Sahagun.
In her book, The Ancient Past of Mexico, 1966, p. 13, Alma M. Reed writes that a member of the Chinese National Assembly holds that a Chinese monk named Fa Hsien landed in Mexico in A.D. 412, and that he became the Toltec culture hero Quetzalcoatl, symbolized by the "plumed serpent". The Toltecs being a marauding tribe from the north of Nahua-speaking stock. Reed mentions (page 27) that the identity of the Toltecs poses one of the most confusing problems in the legendary and documented history of Mexico. She writes that...
"the fierce warrior, the Toltec god-king Mixcoatl, who has been called the "New World Genghis Khan" and who was deified by his own people, the Toltec hordes appeared with the suddenness of a cyclone, which the word "Mixcoatl" signifies". After burning and sacking Teotihuacan the energetic chieftain moved on, seeking a favorable site, finally settling on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco at Culhuacan ("The Place of the Turning" or "The Place of the Bent Ancient Ones"). According to the Anales de Cuauhtitlan he later moved the seat of the Toltec empire to Tula"(The Ancient Past of Mexico, 1966, p.27-28).
The mushroom ritual associated with warfare, and the ballgame was probably timed astronomically to the period of inferior conjunction of the planet Venus. At this time, Venus sinks below the horizon and disappears into the "underworld" for eight days. It then rises before the sun, thereby appearing to resurrect the sun from the underworld as the Morning Star. Mushroom-induced decapitation rituals were likely performed in ballcourts, a metaphor for the underworld, which was timed to a ritual calendar linked to the movements of the planet Venus as both a Morning Star and Evening Star.
Among the ancient Maya, and Nahua, the ballgame and human sacrifice and the ritual of decapitation were believed necessary to save mankind from calamity and the cosmos from collapse. Some of he most explicit scenes of human ballgame sacrifice are depicted on the six panels of the Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza, and on the six panels of the South Ballcourt at El Tajin, in Veracruz.
"Dear Gordon,
This is a completely new theory that I have recently formulated. It is quite revolutionary, and I will try to publish it as soon as possible. When you carefully check the Annals of the Cakchiqueles and the Popol Vuh, you will read that, in spite of the fact that the Quiché and Cakchiquel tribes claim origin in the legendary city of Tollán, throughout their trip until they reach the Guatemalan Highlands (they) encounter only tribes speaking a language similar to their own. The country between the Laguna de Terminos and the Usumacinta region was and still is populated by Chol Mayas. Consequently, the Quiché and Cakchiqueles must have understood this language, and therefore were also Maya speakers. When they reached Guatemala, they met the Maya and, in the Annals, they referred to them as "stutterers", thus implying that they spoke a language somewhat similar to their own. J. Eric Thompson, a few years ago advanced the theory that the Itzás who came to Chichén Itzá about 1000 A.D. were Mexican-influenced Chontal Maya Indians from the Laguna de Terminos region. The Yucatecan Mayas called the Itzá invaders "stutterers", or "people who speak our language brokenly". I therefore suggest that the Quichés and Cakchiqueles were equally Nahuatl-influenced Chontal Mayas. I think that the story is as follows: the priest king Quetzalcóatl was expelled by his enemies from Tula (Tollán), sometime around 960 A.D. He left with a small group of his followers and went to Tlapallan, that is, the Laguna de Terminos region. Here he apparently settled down. It would seem that some of the Chontal tribes accepted the mushroom cult introduced by him and after a few years, the pressure of enemy tribes forced them to move on, led by descendants of Quetzalcóatl and his followers. Some went northeast to Chichén Itzá; others moved southward following the Usumacinta toward Guatemala. The archaeological picture of Northern Guatemala favors this theory. Linguistically, it is far more plausible than the other. The few leaders could still refer to their homeland as Tollán, and probably continued for a while to speak Nahuatl. The great mass of followers, however, did not speak this language and therefore probably spoke Chontal Maya. The Quiché and Cakchiquel Maya are, of course, linguistically related to the Chol and Chontal Maya. Please understand, this is a completely new theory. I am in the process of gathering archaeological data, which might support it."
Decoding the Fleur de Lis Symbol in Pre-Columbian Art:
Most American scholars still scoff at the idea of trans-oceanic contact between the Old World and New World prior to the voyages of Columbus, insisting that the oceans were too wide to have been crossed. The author's discovery of the Fleur de lis symbol encoded in Pre-Columbian art as a symbol of divinity and "God" connected with a sacrament of immortality, leads the author to conclude that, in addition to the ancient mushroom cult first proposed by Borhegyi, other Vedic inspired traditions migrated to the Americas and that the Indians of the New World modeled their religion on Vedic beliefs and ritual practices.
Above is the entrance to Padmanabhaswamy Temple (16th-century) located in Thiruvananthapuram India. The elaborate doorway is believed to be a portal guarded by deities of the Underworld associated with death and Underworld resurrection. The portal door encodes an underworld deity, and dual serpents, wrapped around the Tree of Life, encoded with a Fleur de lis symbol of divine resurrection.
Among the Classic period Southern Maya the great "Vision Serpent", a symbol of Maya kingship, goes back to earlier Olmec conceptions, of the "bearded dragon", essentially a portal, at the World Tree, representing the doorway to the spiritual world. In both hemispheres serpents are associated with the Tree of Life, and immortality by virtue of renewing themselves, through the shedding of their skin.
I have found that in Mesoamerica the trefoil symbol that appears similar in shape to a Fleur de lis symbol, signified nothing less than the divine symbol of their god-king Quetzalcoatl. In Aztec and Toltec mythology, Quetzalcoatl was the god who came down from the sky like a bolt of lightning, to bring mankind sacred mushrooms, and he instructed his children on how to perform blood sacrifices in exchange for immortality.
Bartolome de las Casas, a Bishop of Chiapas in the mid 1500’s, reported that "after the sun, which they (the Aztecs) held as their principal god, they honored and worshiped a certain star more than any other denizen of the heavens or earth, because they held it at certain that their god Quezalcovatl, the highest god of the Cholulans, when he died transformed into this star". Las Casas further noted that the Indians awaited the appearance of this star in the east each day, and that when it appeared their priests offered many sacrifices and ceremonies, including incense and their own blood". Although Las Casas did not identify which star this was, native Mesoamerican sources identify the Feathered Serpent deity Quetzalcoatl, with the Morningstar aspect of the planet Venus (Popol Vuh, 2007 Allen J. Christenson p. 205)
According to Mexican archaeologist Alfonso Caso, to understand Aztec mythology and the multiplicity of gods and their attributes one must understand that "Aztec religion was in a period of synthesis, in which there were being grouped together, within the concept of a single god (Quetzalcoatl) different capacities that were considered to be related" (Caso, 1958: p.23). Quetzalcoatl for example was not only the Morning Star but he was also the god of wind, the god of life and death, of twins and monsters and so on, and because of his many attributes he was known by different names: Eh'ecatl, Ce Acatl, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, Tezcatlipoca and Xolotl. The gods Xolotl, Tlaloc and Tezcatlipoca are aspects of Quetzalcoatl as the Evening Star, and thus represent gods associated with sacrifice (underworld decapitation) and rebirth and resurrection from the underworld. As Tezcatlipoca, an aspect of the Black Quetzalcoatl, he was the patron god of sorcerers, and Tezcatlipoca name means "the mirror that smokes" which is why he was also the discoverer of fire. It's not surprising that the gods Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl, being one and the same, shared the same temple at the great city of Teotihuacan in the highlands of Mexico (Alfonso Caso, 1958: p.23).
The sacrifice of one's own life was believed to be the greatest gift one could give the gods, because it emulated the ways of their god-king Quetzalcoatl, who sacrificed himself (at Teotihuacan) so as to become the new fifth sun, and bring light back to the world: (M. D. Coe 1994:91)
Spanish chronicler Fray Diego Duran ...... (Duran, 1971)
“The Indians made sacrifices in the mountains, and under shaded trees, in the caves and caverns of the dark and gloomy earth. They burned incense, killed their sons and daughters and sacrificed them and offered them as victims to their gods; they sacrificed children, ate human flesh, killed prisoners and captives of war.... One thing in all this history: no mention is made of their drinking wine of any type, or of drunkenness. Only wild mushrooms are spoken of, and they were eaten raw.”
Quoting William H. Prescott (1796-1859)
"Human sacrifice, however cruel, has nothing in it degrading to its victim. It may be rather said to ennoble him by devoting him to the gods. Although so terrible with the Aztecs, it was sometimes voluntarily embraced by them, as the most glorious death, and one that opened a sure passage into paradise" (History of the Conquest of Mexico and History of the Conquest of Peru p.51)
"It is known that through all the country was established a kind of baptism which changed, as to the ceremonies, in various places, yet remained the same everywhere in all essentials, a bath of natural water, reciting over the baptized some formulas, such as prayers and orations, imposing a name; and all this was considered as a rite of religion" (from Was the Apostle St. Thomas in Mexico 1881, p.421).
Mushroom stones that reappear in the highland Maya area during Late Classic times (600-1000 C.E.) are mostly the plain and or tripod variety (Type D) common to the Pacific Coast and Piedmont area as well as in Western El Salvador. "The Chiapas type mushroom stones are usually plain and have a "bundle" on their stem as the only decoration" (letter Borhegyi to Wasson April 25, 1968).
Above is a ballgame yoke fragment with footprint (excavated in 1948 by J. Eric S. Thompson) along with a tripod mushroom stone (Type D) from a pit in front of Monument 3 at the Pacific coastal site of El Baúl in Guatemala (Milwaukee Public Museum Archives). Type D tripod mushroom stones (plain and effigy style) were frequent in the Pacific Coast and Piedmont area as well as in western El Salvador (Borhegyi de, 1965: 37).
After the burning of Teotihuacan in A.D. 650, its people dispersed throughout Mesoamerica, bringing with them the cults of Quetzalcoatl, and Tlaloc, and the unsavory trophy-head cult and decapitation sacrifice connected with the ballgame (Borhegyi de, 1965: 40) (Stirling, 1943, pp.72-74). This period is often referred to as the "Epiclassic" roughly A.D. 600 to 900. This was the arrival of war-like headhunting groups identified in the Spanish chronicles as the "Nonoalcas". These "Nonoalcas" according to Borhegyi were apparently, in themselves, a composite group, derived from a mixture of Nathuat-speaking "Tajinized-Teotihuacan-Pipils" the Pipil-Nicarao, who remained in the Laguna de Terminos region after their brethren the "Nonoalcas" migrated south to the Pacific Coast between A.D. 700 and 800 (1965 p.41).
It was in the Cotzumalhuapa area along the Pacific coast where the severing of human heads reached new levels (Borhegyi de, 1965: 37; Borhegyi de, 1980: 25; Borhegyi letter to Wasson, November 30, 1953, Wasson Archives). Nowhere else in Mesoamerica does the ballgame imagery appear so gruesome. We find images of decapitated ballplayers carved on the walls of formal ballcourts at El Tajín and Chichén Itzá that supports the western origin of the ballgame carried by the Putún-descended peoples when they relocated north to Chichén Itzá and south to the Guatemala Highlands and Pacific coast. The extension of stone yokes, hachas, and palmas southward through the Isthmus of Guatemala and El Salvador almost certainly corresponds to the diffusion of an intensified, sacrificial version of the ballgame (S. Jeffery K. Wilkerson, 1991 p.58, in The Mesoamerican Ballgame). It was also in this area along the Pacific coast near the border of Mexico and Guatemala, where countless mushroom stones have been found going back to Olmec times.
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At Teotihuacan, Quetzalcoatl (left) and Tlaloc (right) merged together to represent the dualistic aspects of the planet Venus as both the Morning Star and Evening Star and shared the same temple at Teotihuacan.
The Mexican god Tlaloc, is easily recognizable by his trademark goggle-eyes and handlebar mustache. Above on the left is the image of Tlaloc from the pre-Conquest Codex Borgia. A trefoil or Fleur de lis symbol is tagged to the blood-letting perforators, as a symbol of immortality, divinity and God. Above on the right Tlaloc wears what appears to me to be mushroom inspired ear-plugs ? Tlalocan was a mushroom inspired paradise of the afterlife seen through the goggled eyes of Tlaloc (image of Tlaloc on the right is from the Musée de l'Homme Museum in Paris, France).
Quoting Gordon Wasson (1957)
"If we were to postulate mushrooms in pre-Conquest art in Mexico, we would direct our search precisely to frescos dealing with Tlaloc and the Paradise of our mushroomic visions, to the very frescos where we have found mushroomic shapes.
Above is close up image from a Mixtec pictogram, known as the Lienzo de Zacatepec 1540-1560 AD, also called the Códice Martínez Gracida, now in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, in Mexico City. Tlalocan is a paradise and the abode of deified ancestors, connected with the axis mundi, and the destination of the ruler portrayed above after his death. The ancient Maya equivalent of a paradise of creation is the myth of Tamoanchan the place where the World Tree rises, and where gods and humans and time itself were created.
It's the author's belief that the scene above in the Lienzo de Zacatepec, depicts the probable act of ritual self sacrifice, and that it portrays the Mexican god Tlaloc as a death god responsible for the act of underworld decapitation. Thus Tlaloc as the Evening Star aspect of the planet Venus, represents the god of underworld resurrection. Those who died for Tlaloc, and in this case willingly by decapitation, were under his watchful eye, and went directly to his divine paradise of immortality called Tlalocan. The footprints in this scene represents a long journey by one of the royal figures above. I believe this journey is to the underworld, via sacred mushrooms, where the willing victim, or victims of ritual decapitation, are reborn, and resurrect from the underworld. Note the flint knife at the foot of the temple steps, that esoterically represents the ritual of decapitation. Note that at the bottom of the scene the victim's severed head with sprouting mushrooms is portrayed on top of a sacred mountain that marks a sacred portal to the otherworldly paradise of Tlalocan. Mt. Tlaloc is known to be the dwelling place of Tlaloc the Rain God, where victims of floods, storms, and diseases caused by water were received after death.
Above are pair of Tlaloc's trademark goggles, carved from shell and shaped to form a feathered serpent, linking Tlaloc with the ballgame and with Quetzalcoatl (Photograph from the Justin Kerr Data Base K6777). Below are ballplayer figurine heads, and a ballgame hacha from Veracruz Mexico.
Quoting Wasson (1957)
"It [the mushroom] permits you to see, more clearly than our perishing mortal eye can see, vistas beyond the horizons of this life, to travel backwards and forwards in time, to enter other planes of existence, even (as the Indians say) to know God."
Classic Veracruz figurines Remojadas culture depicting ballplayers wearing Tlaloc's divine goggles. Fray Sahagun 1547-1577, writes that captives who were victims of sacrifice were clothed in the image of Tlaloc (The History of Ancient Mexico 1932 p.95). The ballplayer sculpture above on the right is now in the Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa, Mexico.
Above is a terra cotta figurine from Tenenexpan in the State of Veracruz, Mexico. The hollow figurine worshipping a mushroom is in the style of the Remojadas culture, Classic Period ca. A.D. 300. The Remojadas culture is considered part of the larger Classic Veracruz culture. Wasson writes this about the figurine, "is a superb expression of the religious faith of a people who held the entheogenic mushrooms in awe, both for their ecstatic potency and their divinatory powers" (Wasson, 1980 p.194).
Archaeologist Richard Diel, writes that the Classic Veracruz hollow figurine tradition, famous for its "smiling faces" and other bizarre facial expressions, are believed to portray intoxicated or drugged sacrificial victims (Death Gods, Smiling Faces and Colossal Heads: Archaeology of the Mexican Gulf Lowlands).
The art style at the archaeological site of El Tajin (Veracruz Culture) is also reminiscent of the Cotzumulhuapa culture on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, and there is little doubt that there must have been close contact between the two regions. Cotzumahlhuapa's imagery also depicts serpents, jaguars, human skulls and skullracks, and bloody sacrifices performed by were-jaguars (see Lee A. Parsons 1963, 1965a, b, 1966 a,b, 1967). It was in this region that the decapitation of human heads (trophy head cult) and the dismemberment of body parts reached new levels.
Above on the left is Stela 27 from the archaeological site of El Baul, along the coastal Piedmont area of Guatemala. The ballgame scene on Stela 27 depicts ballplayers wearing jaguar helmets of the Underworld god Tlaloc, and wear hand-gloves that represents either the local survival of the Olmec influenced Preclassic handball game, or a late Classic revival of the handball game along the coastal Piedmont area of Guatemala (Borhegyi de, 1980: 16). Borhegyi who excavated at the sites of El Baúl and Bilbao, believed that most of the Cotzumalhuapa stone sculptures are of the Late Classic period (600-1000 C.E.) (Borhegyi de, 1965: 36, 39).
Quoting Stephan de Borhegyi
“These zones were once influenced by the Olmecs and later by ‘warlike’ Mexican Gulf Coast groups. One wonders if these grisly sacrificial activities are native to this area or are Pre-Classic survivals of a game once played with human heads with long, flowing hair in the Tajín and La Venta areas and in parts of Oaxaca” (S.F. Borhegyi de, 1980: 16)
Sahagun writes that the great ballcourt at the Aztec's capital of Tenochtitlan was in front of the Templo Mayor, a dual pyramid complex dedicated to the gods Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli. Sahagun also describes the great tzompantli, or skull rack, where the skulls of sacrificed victims were displayed, and writes that it was opposite the Templo Mayor. According to Mary Miller, this architectural relationship of skull rack (tzompantli) to ballcourt can be seen in at least two other Postclassic sites: the Toltec capital of Tula (Ballcourt 2) and Chichen Itza (Mary Miller 2001 p.91, in "The Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame").
Tlaloc as a Storm God is frequently represented holding a ray of lightning or thunder bolt in his hand. In this respect, Tlaloc is also an earth god. When he throws lightning to the ground he has coitus with his female counterpart, the earth. Any object that suddenly grows up after a heavy rain storm could easily be associated as a child of this union. Few things pop up as quickly and as mysteriously as fungi after a rain.
Above on the left is an image of the Mexican god Tlaloc from Mural 1, at the Patio of the Jaguars in Zone 2 at Teotihuacan (200-650 C.E.). The image of Tlaloc is superimposed on a five pointed Venus star symbolizing the "fiveness" of Venus referring to the five synodic cycles of Venus identified in the Venus Almanac of the Dresden Codex (Milbrath 1999 p.199). On the right is a Classic period Teotihuacan vessel that portrays the goggled-eyed Tlaloc above a five pointed half-star, identified as a Central Mexican-style half-star Venus glyph (Milbrath 1999 p.184-185)
Archaeo-astronomer John Carlson proposed (1991, 1993) that the Classic period Mexican half-star symbol is part of a cult of Venus-regulated warfare imported from Teotihuacan to the Maya area (Milbrath 1999 p.186). Venus is not only connected to warfare but also linked to the founding of some Maya dynasties and that the lineage founder is connected with the goggle-eyed Tlaloc (Milbrath 1999 p.196).
Above is a Classic Period Teotihuacan inspired Maya polychrome plate, that depicts at it's center, the Mexican god Tlaloc surrounded by four stylized Fleur de lis symbols. This configuration of five, identified as the quincunx, symbolizes the "fiveness" of Venus , or five synodic cycles of Venus identified in the Venus Almanac of the Dresden Codex (Milbrath 1999 p.199).
The late Maya archaeologist J. Eric S. Thompson identified this configuration of five as the quincunx, a variant of the Central Mexican Venus sign. The design of this symbol symbolizes the four cardinal directions and its central entrance to the underworld where the World Tree is located. The general model of Maya cosmology is that the earth floats on the sea, with the World Tree at its center, and the four corners separating the sky and earth, interconnecting all three layers, the sky, the earth, and the underworld. The symbol of the quincunx is of great antiquity, having been found at the Olmec site of San Lorenzo on Monument 43 dated at 900 B.C. The quincunx design also appears on Maya Venus Platforms. The Olmec and Maya believed that it was through this portal, the axis mundi, that souls passed on their journey to deification, rebirth and resurrection. According to Maya archaeologist David Freidel, the Maya called this sacred center, mixik' balamil, meaning "the navel of the world" (Thompson,1960:170-172, fig. 31 nos.33-40; Freidel & Schele, 1993:124).
Owner: Popol Vuh Museum, Guatemala:
Above is a Late Classic (A.D. 500-900) Maya vase painting K3060, that depicts a long-lipped bearded deity with a bulbous nose and serpentine eye, known as Chaac. Chaac is a long-lipped Quadripartite Maya god designated as "God B," by Schellhas, and is the most frequently depicted Maya god in the three surviving pre-Hispanic codices. Chaac, like his Aztec-Toltec counterpart Tlaloc, represents the embodiment of lightning, rain and thunder (Herbert Spinden 1975 p.62). Although some scholars seem reluctant to identify Tlaloc and Chaac as the same deity both are connected with underworld decapitation and Venus resurrection, as well as Venus warfare and with the four cardinal directions and it's sacred center. In the Dresden Codex Venus pages, Venus is referred to "chac ek" meaning "Great Star". The Maya god Chaac like his Mexican counterpart Tlaloc wields the axe of Underworld decapitation, and both deities are intimately associated with sacred mushrooms that act as divine portal to the Underworld. These sacred portals to the Underworld are located at the four cardinal directions and it's sacred center, which the artist esoterically depicted above in Maya vase painting K3066. David Freidel writes that "the ballcourt was not only a place of sacrifice; it was an entry portal to the time and space of the last Creation" (Maya Cosmos 1993, p. 352). Note what the author proposes are encoded mushrooms located at the four cardinal directions. Chaac, like his Mexican counterpart Tlaloc, are commonly depicted in art wielding an axe of ritual decapitation and lightning bolts in the shape of serpents. Chaak, the Maya god of lightning and rain, is also commonly found in the Toltec period art of Chichen Itza (Karl A. Taube p.219)
Although Chaac is identified with the four cardinal directions, he was sometimes thought of as the "one" god who resided at the center of the universe. A page in the Dresden Codex portrays four Chaacs seated in the trees located at the four cardinal directions of time and space. A fifth Chaac is seated in a cave representing the cosmic center of the world. Once again symbolizing the "fiveness" of Venus referring to the five synodic cycles of Venus. The Maya god Chaac may also be equated with the Maya god Kukulcan, who was the Maya/Toltec version of the god Quetzalcoatl. The word k'uh, means "holy spirit" or "god", and the word chan or kaan means both serpent and sky (Freidel, Schele, Parker, 1993 p. 177).
Above, is a 16th century Nahua painting of a ballcourt from
the Codex Tudela, that depicts the rings or hoops that where mounted
into the walls of formal ballcourts, in the configuration of the quincunx so that the ball would pass through the sacred center. Note the flint knife next to each hoop and the human skulls in the playing ally, representing the sacred ritual act of decapitation.
First-hand reports tell us that the Aztecs ate mushrooms, and drank a mushroom beverage in order to induce hallucinatory trances and dreams (Wasson and Wasson, 1980:75 -178). The author proposes that artists intentionally encoded or tagged a Fleur de lis symbol, to sacred objects associated with self sacrifice, including drinking vessels that contained a ritual sacramental beverage.
The Amanita or fly agaric mushroom was likely the original sacrament, the God-producing substance through which humans aspired to ecstasy and thus, communion with the gods. Above in the upper right hand corner is a scene from page 35 of the Codex Vaticanus, that depicts a victim with a flint blade in his hand, in the act of self decapitation. Note that the ritual beverage in the scene is encoded with a Fleur de lis symbol.
The feathered serpent is one of the oldest and the most important deities of Mesoamerica. In Aztec accounts, the Feathered Serpent, Quetzalcoatl, turns himself into a serpent and then back again into a god with human attributes and form. Serpents represent the bondage of time and its cyclical nature. The Mexican God-king Quetzalcoatl’s name represents a blending of serpent and bird; the quetzal, a blue-green bird that inhabits the cloud forests of Mesoamerica, and coatl, the Nahua word describing both sky and serpent.
In both hemispheres serpents are associated with the Tree of Life as well as immortality by virtue of renewing themselves through the shedding of their skin. Above is a closeup scene from a pre-Conquest manuscript known as the Codex Laud, where we see the serpent and World Tree merge into a single symbol, tagged with the Fleur de lis emblem as a symbol of divine immortality. The scene, I believe, portrays the deity Quetzalcoatl the Feathered Serpent as the World Tree, encoded with three Fleur de lis symbols, alluding to a trinity of creator gods in Mesoamerica. (for a documentation of Snake or Serpent symbolism in Mesoamerica, signifying wisdom and knowledge see Ixtlilxochitl, 1952: I, 21).
Above is a page from the Tlaxcala Codex (Lienzo de Tlaxcala), a mid Sixteenth Century Mexican manuscript of the history of the Tlaxcaltecas and the Spanish in their wars against the Aztecs and the evangelical battle for Christianity. The Caption in Náhuatl the language of the Aztecs, describes how people are killed in the "house of the devil". The scene depicts a human sacrifice ceremony observed by Hernando Cortes at a temple dedicated to Lord Quetzalcoatl adorned with what I propose are six Fleur de lis symbols (Lienzo de Tlaxcala Folio 239r). (Lienzo de Tlaxcala http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/jan2003.html)
Based on a passage of the Madrid Codices worked on by Dr. Dibble and Sr. Barrios, from Schultze Jena’s Gliederung des Alt-Aztekischen Volks in Familie, Stand und Beruf (pp.207 ff.), the eating of mushrooms is part of a longer ceremony performed by merchants returning from a trading expedition to the coast lands. The merchants would only arrive on a day of favorable aspect. A feast and ceremony of thanksgiving were organized by the returning merchants, also on a day of favorable aspect. In the Madrid Codex according to Dibble Barrios, there was a prelude to the ceremony of eating mushrooms in which they sacrificed a quail and offered incense to the four directions, all of which I found depicted in the Lienzo de Tlaxcala Folio 239r.
In the Lienzo de Tlaxcala Folio 239r,, the artists depicts a scene of human sacrifice and the ritual decapitation of quail birds, witnessed by Hernan Cortes and his men, at the temple steps adorned with six Fleur de lis symbols dedicated to Lord Quetzalcoatl. In the scene the artist depicts the offering of quails, the burning of incense, and the sacrifice of a human being to the four cardinal directions (note the four attendants), to a mushroom inspired Death God.
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“They [the Indians] were very devout. Only one was their god; they showed all attention to, they called upon, they prayed to one by the name of Quetzalcoatl. The name of one who was their minister, their priest [was] also Quetzalcoatl. "There is only one god" [he is] Quetzalcoatl.”( Sahagún, 1950-75,10:160).
“All the ceremonies and rites, building temples and altars and placing idols in them, fasting, going nude and sleeping on the floor, climbing mountains, to preach the law there, kissing the earth, eating it with one's fingers and blowing trumpets and conch shells and flutes on the great feast days-- all these emulated the ways of the holy man, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl”. (Duran, 1971: 59).
As the priest-king ruling at Tula, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl sacrificed himself by throwing himself into a fire in order to purify his people. He rose again from the stake as the brilliant star, Venus, having promised that he would one day return as a person, and liberate his adherence and start a new era. The attraction of Lord Quetzalcoatl as a savior who burned himself as an act of penitence, grew in time to such an extent that all later priest-kings took his name and claimed to be his incarnation or vicar. ("Master Works of Mexican Art" 1963, p.210).
Above are images from the Post-Conquest Codex Fernandez, that depicts what appears to be willing sacrificial victims of the arrow sacrifice. Note that at the top of the ladder there is a trefoil, esoterically representing divinity and eternal life. Also note the symbolism surrounding the Tree of Life, and the World Tree portal, with four voladores dressed as birds, at the four cardinal directions. The footprints in the scene, allude to the long and arduous journey in the underworld to deification and rebirth.
Spanish chronicler Fray Diego Duran reported that mushrooms were eaten on the occasion of the accession of the famous Aztec King Moctezuma II to the throne, in the year 1502. After Moctezuma took his Divine Seat, captives were brought before him and sacrificed in his honor. He and his attendants then ate a stew made from their flesh. (Duran, 1964: 225).
“When the sacrifice was finished and the steps and courtyard were bathed with human blood, everyone went to eat raw mushrooms”. “With this food they went out of their minds and were in worse state than if they had drunk a great quantity of wine. They became so inebriated and witless that many of them took their lives in their hands. With the strength of these mushrooms they saw visions and had revelations about the future, since the devil spoke to them in their madness”.
“The Indians made sacrifices in the mountains, and under shaded trees, in the caves and caverns of the dark and gloomy earth. They burned incense, killed their sons and daughters and sacrificed them and offered them as victims to their gods; they sacrificed children, ate human flesh, killed prisoners and captives of war....One thing in all this history: no mention is made of their drinking wine of any type, or of drunkenness. Only wild mushrooms are spoken of and they were eaten raw.”
"It was common to sacrifice men on feast days as it is for us to kill lambs or cattle in the slaughterhouses.... I am not exaggerating; there were days in which two thousand, three thousand or eight thousand men were sacrificed...Their flesh was eaten and a banquet was prepared with it after the hearts had been offered to the devil.... to make the feasts more solemn all ate wild mushrooms which make a man lose his senses... the people became excited, filled with pleasure, and lost their senses to some extent."
In both hemispheres the Fleur de lis symbol is associated with divine rulership, linked to mythological deities in the guise of a serpent, feline, and bird, associated with a Tree of Life, it's divine fruit, and a trinity of creator gods. In Mesoamerica, as in the Old World, the royal line of the king was considered to be of divine origin, linked to the Tree of Life. Descendants of the Mesoamerican god-king Quetzalcoatl, and thus all Mesoamerican kings or rulers, were also identified with the trefoil, or Fleur de lis symbol.
Above in the upper left hand corner is a glyph from the pre-Conquest Maya Dresden Codex that depicts the Fleur de lis symbol in connection with the four cardinal directions. Above in the upper right hand corner is a close up scene from the Codex Selden, a pre-Conquest Mixtec manuscript from Highland Mexico, painted sometime around A. D. 1500. I believe the Mixtec artist intentionally encoded the Fleur de lis symbol emerging from the four branches of the World Tree, or Tree of Life as a symbolic reference of the four cardinal directions, and it's sacred center.
In both the Old World and New World, the Fleur de lis symbol is associated with divine rulership, linked to mythological deities of a serpent, feline, and bird, associated with a Tree of Life, it's forbidden fruit, and a trinity of creator gods.
The belief in a "World Tree" or "Tree of Life" that interconnects the upper world with the underworld, is a belief in both the Old World and New World but that has it's origin in the Old World. Above is a page from the Codex Borgia, one of the few remaining pre-Conquest codices. These pictorial documents contain much valuable information pertaining to native history, mythology, and ritual, related to a pantheon of supernatural gods. Unfortunately, due to Spanish intolerance of indigenous religious beliefs, only eighteen pre-Conquest books attributed to the people of Highland Mexico have survived to the present day. The painting from the Codex Borgia depicts the World Tree", or "Tree of Life" emerging from the body of a death god in the underworld, (life from death). Perched atop the spectacular tree with its branches encoded with the Fleur de lis symbol is a harpy eagle, a symbol of the Morning Star and the new born Sun, and the avatar of the god-king Quetzalcoatl. (http://americaindigena.com/sacred16.htm).
Above is a scene from the Codex Bodley, a Mixtec manuscript from Highland Mexico, painted sometime around A. D. 1500. It's the author's belief that the artist intentionally encoded a Fleur de lis symbol, tagged to a sacred mushroom, as a symbol of god.
Above on the is a page and a closeup from the Codex Mendoza, an Aztec manuscript created just after the Spanish Conquest, that shows the tribute collected by Aztec civil servants from the province of Tochtepec. A closeup of the vessel reveals two probable psilocybin mushrooms esoterically emerging (tagged as divine) from what the author believes is a New World version of the Old World Fleur de lis symbol.
In Mesoamerica as in the Old World, the Amanita muscaria mushroom is later replaced in the Soma ritual by several different species of psilocybin mushrooms, in the areas where the Amanita muscaria and Amanita pantherina mushrooms (also intoxicating) are not available or not abundant, unlike the psilocybin mushroom which are found in abundance throughout Mesoamerica, as reported by Fray Sahagun in the sixteenth-century. The Psilocybe mushroom contains the substance psilocin and psilocybin that causes the mushroom hallucination that was described as "consciousness-expanding" during the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. The psilocybin mushroom is indigenous to the sub-tropical regions of the U.S, Mexico, and Central America.
The story of creation and destruction, death and rebirth appears frequently in pre-Columbian art. When we look at pre-Columbian art and see images that celebrate death, we must keep in mind that death to all Mesoamericans was just a prelude to rebirth--a portal to divine immortality. In the minds of the Indians these rituals represented the highest praise one could spiritually devote in honor of the gods who made water plentiful, and food possible.
Above are scenes from the Florentine Codex (Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España), by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, between A.D. 1547-1582. Both of the pages depict what looks like the eating of sacred mushrooms before their ritual decapitation. The codex page on the right depicts what appears to be the smiling faces of willing sacrificial victims, prior to their ritual decapitation. Note that the sacrificial victims have turned their capes around to be used as the bibs and bundles for their severed heads.
Above is a Late Classic (600-9000 C.E) Maya vase painting, No. K5390, photographed by Justin Kerr. The drinking vessel esoterically depicts, what the author proposes is likely a scene of deity impersonation, taking place in the Maya Underworld. The figure on the far left holding both a spear and shield, wears the trademark headdress of the Maya deity known as God L. In Maya cosmology the planet Venus was believed to be the sun from the previous world age. In Late Classic times God L represented the Lord of the Underworld, and that before this world was destroyed it was ruled by God L. In front of God L, is a ballplayer, or ruler, or captive of war, portrayed in jaguar attire, on his knees excepting what appears to the author to be a Amanita muscaria mushroom in one hand, encoded in the shape of the Fleur de lis, and what appears to be an upside down trophy head on a staff in the other hand.
Late Classic period (A.D. 600-900) Maya polychrome drinking vessels, depicting a familiar symbol the author proposes is a New World version of the Old World Fleur de lis symbol.
Above on the left is a closeup scene from the pre-Conquest manuscript known as the Codex Laud, and above on the right is another closeup scene from the pre-Conquest Codex Borgia. Both manuscripts depict a scene of self sacrifice and a ritual drink tagged with a Fleur de lis symbol.
Above are all images from pre-Hispanic and Colonial period manuscripts, that the author believes encodes a stylized Fleur de lis symbol by the artist, as a way to esoterically tag the ritual of sacrifice and the sacred beverage as holy and divine.
The eating of mushrooms according to Fray Sahagun took place in the earlier part of the evening, and the mushroom eaters did not at least then eat food. At midnight a feast followed, and toward dawn the various offerings to the gods, or the remains of them, were ceremonially buried. Spanish chronicler Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, also reported that mushrooms were eaten on the occasion of the accession of the famous Aztec King Moctezuma II to the throne, in the year 1502.
Quoting Fray Bernardino de Sahagun:
“For four days there was feasting and celebration and then on the fourth day came the coronation of Montezuma II, followed by human sacrifices in numbers."
"At the very first, mushrooms had been served. They ate them at the time when the shell trumpets were blown. They ate no more food; they only drank chocolate during the night, and they ate the mushrooms with honey. But some, while still in command of their senses, entered and sat there by the house on their seats; they danced no more, but only sat there nodding. One saw in vision that already he would die, and then continued weeping, one saw that he would die in battle; one saw in vision that he would be eaten by wild beasts; one saw in vision that he would take captives in war; one saw in vision that he would be rich, wealthy; one saw in vision that he would buy slaves, he would be a slave owner; one saw in vision that he would commit adultery, he would be struck by stones, he would be stone; one saw in vision that he would steal, he would also be stone and saw in vision that his head would be crushed by stones-they would condemn him; one saw in vision that he would perish in the water; one saw in vision that he would live in peace, and tranquility, until he died; one saw in vision that he would fall from a roof top, and he would fall to his death; however many things were to befall one, he then saw all in vision: even that he would be drowned. And when the effects of the mushrooms had left them they consulted among themselves and told one another what they had seen in vision. And they saw in vision, what would befall those who had eaten no mushrooms, and what they went about doing. Some were perhaps thieves, some perhaps committed adultery. Howsoever many things there were all were told-that one would take captives, one would become a seasoned warrior, a leader of youths, one would die in battle, become rich, buy slaves, provide banquets, ceremonially bathe slaves, commit adultery, be strangled, perish in water, drown. Whatsoever was to befall one, they then saw all in vision. Perhaps he would go to his death in Anauac (Florentine Codex, Dibble & Anderson, Bk 9 pp.38-39).
Above on the left are three illustrations from Book IV in the Florentine Codex, compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) that depicts a sequence of rituals beginning with what may be the mushroom ritual, leading next to ritual heart sacrifice, and ending with ritual cannibalism. It was believed that cannibalism and drinking the blood of their victim's was necessary in order to imbibe some of their wisdom and strength.
Sahagún describes the sacrifice and feast in relation to the festivals of Xipe Tótec, the god of spring and regeneration, and of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and of the sun (folio 268r). It's my belief that in the first illustration the artist portrays the sacrificial victim with dangling eye-balls, represents the trance one is under on divine mushrooms. Most, if not all, of this information comes from post-Conquest codices. These hand-drawn pictorial documents produced by local Indian artists on fan-folded pages of bark paper or parchment contained much valuable information pertaining to native history, mythology, and ritual.
" Because of their nature we could almost affirm that they [the Aztecs] are Jews and Hebrew people, and I believe that I would not be committing a great error if I were to state this fact, considering their way of life, their ceremonies, their rites and superstitions, their omens, and false dealings, so related to and characteristic of those of the Jews" (Duran 1964 The Aztecs: p.3).
Duran writes that the Indians were ignorant of their origins and beginnings, but they have traditions regarding a long and tedious journey, and that they were led by a great man who gathered a multitude of his followers and persuaded them to flee from persecution to a land where they could live in peace. This great leader was said to have gone to the seashore with his followers, and fleeing his enemies, he parted the sea with a rod that he carried in his hand, and his followers went through the opening. The pursuing enemies seeing this opening of water followed them in only to have the waters return to their place, and the pursuers were never heard from again (Duran The Aztecs, 1964, p.149). Duran writes...
“I am convinced, and wish to convince others, that those who tell this account heard it from their ancestors; and these natives belong, in my opinion, to the lineage of the chosen people of God for whom He worked great marvels. And so the knowledge and the paintings of the things of the Bible and its mysteries have passed from father to son. The people attribute them to this land and say that they took place here, for they are ignorant of their own beginnings" (Duran The Aztecs, 1964, p.5).
The Book of Mormon tells of an Ancient Hebrew People who came to America, leaving Jerusalem around 650 BCE. Like the Hebrews, the Aztecs considered themselves to be a "chosen people", and like the Aztecs, suffered plagues and wondered in the desert for many years before reaching their so called promised land.
John Taylor who was the third president of the Mormon church from 1880 through 1887, wrote the following statement... (from Jerry Stokes, Did Jesus Christ walk the Americas in Precolumbian Times ?)
"The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being"
Duran writes that the Christianization of the Aztecs would remain arduous, and that the "heathen" religion of the Aztecs, and "the whole of their culture is impregnated with the old values." Duran mentions that his writings would most likely go unpublished claiming, “some persons (and they are not a few) say that my work will revive ancient customs and rites among the Indians”, and “that the Indians were quite good at secretly preserving their customs”.
Duran tells us that the Catholic Church, in its zeal to obliterate all aspects of native culture which could threaten Christian religious belief, ordered the destruction of all native documents pertaining to history, myth, and legend. The Church also banished all aspects of native religion in favor of Christianity, and made no attempt to study or further record mushroom rituals.
Not surprising, Duran’s writings were locked away and were more or less unknown to scholars until the 19th century, when it was discovered in the Madrid Library by José Fernando Ramírez. In 1848 Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg an ordained priest, came to the Americas in search of rare manuscripts and religious artifacts and while visiting Mexico City, Bourbourg obtained permission to have the Church archives opened to him, where he discovered a copy of Fray Diego Duran’s, Histories of New Spain.
Bishop Bartolome de Las Casas also believed the Aztecs were descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Trying to prove Las Casas's theory, Lord Kingsborough, (1831-48) spent years and a fortune in the publication of his colossal work Antiquities of Mexico (Miguel Covarrubias, 1954 p.10). In a manuscript written in Quiche in 1554 by several Maya Indians, its Spanish translator, Padre Dionisio-Jose Chonay, had this to say:
"It is supposed in the manuscript that the three great Quiche nations mentioned in particular are descendants of the Ten Tribes of the Kingdom of Israel, whom Shalmaneser reduced to perpetual captivity, and who, finding themselves in the confines of Assyria, decided to emigrate."
Most Book of Mormon scholars propose that Olmec culture relates to the Jaredite culture, referring to customs and traditions of those in and about Jerusalem and Egypt (Diane Wirth 2007). "In 1830 Joseph Smith stated that the ancient inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere were of Hebrew origin, and that they had left a number of metallic plates inscribed with their language, a language which he was able to translate by the power of God" (Paul R. Cheesman 1973, Ancient Writing in the Americas).
Quoting Diane E. Wirth, author of Parallels: Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon 2004
"One of the theories of our time in the field of archaeology and anthropology is the theory of diffusion, which happens to be an unpopular theory except for Latter-day Saints and several small research groups. But this theory is gaining support among several scholars from universities. Most prefer to believe that the Old and New Worlds developed in isolation, and any similarities between them are merely coincidental. They believe that people came from Siberia through the Bering Strait and filtered down through the Americas. But when we talk about diffusion and of world races, we speak of a scattering of races, a circulation of peoples over the continents and an expansion of cultural traits. It is the opinion of those who support the theory of diffusion that ancient people came to the Americas not only across the Bering Strait from Asia but also by way of the sea, from both the east and the west. This theory will take time to grow and develop, and it is getting stronger every year."
According to researcher Diane E. Wirth, 2002, in her book titled, Quetzalcoatl, the Maya Maize God, and Jesus Christ; she writes that "Many scholars suggest that Quetzalcoatl of Mesoamerica, the Maya Maize God, and Jesus Christ could all be the same being." Wirth writes that several stories in the native chronicles like the Popol Vuh, coincide with stories of the savior Jesus Christ in the Bible, such as the creation and the resurrection. She demonstrates that the role that both Quetzalcoatl and the Maya Maize God played in bringing maize to humankind is comparable to Christ's role in bringing the bread of life to humankind. Wirth draws attention to certain similarities in post-Spanish conquest manuscripts for example that Quetzalcoatl was the Creator, that he was born of a virgin, and that he was a god of air and earth (in his manifestation as the Feathered Serpent) that he was white and bearded, and that he came from heaven and was associated with the planet Venus. She mentions that Quetzalcoatl raised the dead, and that he promised to return again.
In the chronology of the Anales de Cuauhtitlan the Historia tolteca; In the year cinco casa (five house --A.D. 873) the Toltecs elected Quetzalcoatl as priest-king of Tula.
A Mysterious Toltec Book:
"A piece of Nahua literature, the disappearance of which is surrounded by circumstances of the deepest mystery, is the Teo-Amoxtli (Divine Book), which is alleged by certain chroniclers to have been the work of the ancient Toltecs. Ixtlilxochitl, a native Mexican author, states that it was written by a Tezcucan wise [46]man, one Huematzin, about the end of the seventh century, and that it described the pilgrimage of the Nahua from Asia, their laws, manners, and customs, and their religious tenets, science, and arts. In 1838 the Baron de Waldeck stated in his Voyage Pittoresque that he had it in his possession, and the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg identified it with the Maya Dresden Codex and other native manuscripts. Bustamante also states that the amamatini (chroniclers) of Tezcuco had a copy in their possession at the time of the taking of their city. But these appear to be mere surmises, and if the Teo-Amoxtli ever existed, which on the whole is not unlikely, it has probably never been seen by a European."(THE MYTHS OF MEXICO & PERU, 1995, BY LEWIS SPENCE)
Above on the left is a Post-Conquest image from Sahagun's Florentine Codex, of Lord Quetzalcoatl, painted by a native artist, that portrays Quetzalcoatl as High Priest holding a scepter almost identical to a 13th century Bishop's staff.
In Mesoamerica, as in the Old World, the royal line of the king was considered to be of divine origin. As the God-king ruling at Tula, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl sacrificed himself by throwing himself into a fire in order to purify his people. He rose again from the stake as the brilliant star Venus, having promised that he would one day return as a person, and liberate his adherence and start a new era. The attraction of Lord Quetzalcoatl as a savior who burned himself as an act of penitence, grew in time to such an extent that all later priest-kings took his name and claimed to be his incarnation or vicar. ("Master Works of Mexican Art" 1963, p.210).
The Return of Quetzalcoatl:
How the Symbol of the Fleur de Lis Changed the Course of New World History
The purpose of this chapter is to present previously unrecognized aspects of pre-Columbian art and iconography that shines a new light on a central riddle of New World history: how it was possible in 1519 for a small band of 450 Spanish conquistadors under the command of Hernán Cortés to conquer the vast and powerful Aztec empire. As I discovered, the answer to this riddle appears to lie in a surprising confluence of religious ideas recognized in both the Old and New World and symbolized by the trefoil design we know as the Fleur de lis. In both hemispheres the Fleur de lis symbol is associated with divine rulership, linked to mythological deities in the guise of a serpent, feline, and bird, associated with a Tree of Life, it's forbidden fruit, and a trinity of creator gods.
In Mesoamerica the trefoil symbol signified nothing less than the divine symbol of the Toltec-Aztec god-king Quetzalcoatl, who is described in post-Conquest literature as being of fair skin, with long hair and a black beard (Mexico, 1994, M.D. Coe p.123). In Mesoamerica, as in the Old World, the royal line of the king was considered to be of divine origin, linked to the Tree of Life. Descendants of the Mesoamerican god-king Quetzalcoatl, and thus all Mesoamerican kings or rulers, were also identified with the trefoil, or Fleur de lis symbol.
Portrait of Hernando Cortés 1529, dressed in all black attire, and holding his shield emblazoned with three Fleur de lis symbols. (Weiditz Trachtenbuch)
The Fleur de lis, a millennials-old symbol in the Old World of power and divinity, was commonly emblazoned on the helmets, clothing, banners and shields of the conquistadors.
Above on the left is the famous 16th century banner of the Virgin Mary that was carried by Cortés in his triumphant entry into the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, wearing a crown emblazoned with the Fleur de Lis symbol. The banner of the Virgin Mary with Fleur de lis symbols now resides in the Natural History Museum, Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City. Above on the right is the Flag of the Spanish conquistadors, with the crown of Castile upon a red flag, as used by the conquistadors Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and others.
(source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_colonization_of_the_Americas)
Here is Bernal Diaz' first-hand account of that fateful meeting of Cortés and the Aztec emperor Motecusuma :
"One of our men had on a casque, (a conquistador helmet) which was partly gilt.... Teuthlille, [general of the Mexican empire, also spelled Teudile] who was much more enlightened than any of his companions, remarked, when his eye fell upon it, that it bore a great resemblance to a casque which belonged to their most ancient forefathers, and now adorned the head of their warrior-god Huitzilopochtli. Motecusuma, he further added, would certainly be uncommonly pleased if he could likewise see this casque".
"Cortés, on hearing this, ordered the casque to be presented to him, thereby expressing the wish, that he should like to satisfy himself that the gold of this country was similar to what we find in our rivers. If they would send him the casque full of gold dust, he would send it to our great emperor. Upon this Teuthlille took leave of Cortés and all of us, promising to return speedily, while Cortés, under the most tender of embraces, made him every profession of friendship".
"After this personage had taken his departure, we learnt that he was not merely a distinguished statesman, but also the most nimble pedestrian at Motecusuma's court. He did, indeed, use the utmost expedition to bring his monarch information, and hand over to him the paintings and presents. The great Motecusuma was vastly astonished at everything he heard and saw, and yet he was pleased. But, when at last he espied the casque, and compared it with that of the idol Huitzilopochtli, he no longer doubted for an instant that we belonged to that people, whom his forefathers had prophesied would, one time or other, come and subdue the country". (source....The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2), CHAPTER XXXVIII. Written by Himself, (1568), Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain.
In a letter written by Hernan Cortés to Charles V of Spain, Cortés writes, " When at last I came to speak to Mutezuma himself..."he took me by the hand and led me to a great room facing the courtyard through which we entered. And he bade me sit on a very rich throne, which he had had built for him and then left saying that I should wait for him. After a short while he returned with many and various treasures of gold, silver and featherwork. " And after he had given me these things he sat on another throne which they placed there next to the one on which I was sitting, and addressed me in the following way:" "For a long time we have known from the writings of our ancestors that neither I, nor any of those who dwell in this land, are natives of it, but foreigners who came from very distant parts; and likewise we know that a chieftain, of whom they were all vassals, brought our people to this region". "And he returned to his native land and after many years came again, by which time all those who had remained were married to native women and had built villages and raised children". "And when he wished to lead them away again they would not go nor even admit him as their chief; and so he departed". "And we have always held that those who descended from him would come and conquer this land and take us as their vassals". "So because of the place from which you claim to come, namely from where the sun rises, and the things you tell us of the great lord or king who sent you here, we believe and are certain that he is our natural lord, especially as you say that he has known of us for some time". "So be assured that we shall obey you and hold you as our lord in place of that great sovereign of whom you speak; and in this there shall be no offence or betrayal whatsoever". "And in all the land that lies in my domain, you may command as you will, for you shall be obeyed; and all that we own is for you to dispose of as you choose" ( Hernan Cortés Letters From Mexico 1971 p. 85-86).
Above is a painting, from the post-Conquest manuscript known as the Codex Telleriano Remensis, also painted by an Indian artist, that portrays the bearded conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, second in command to Cortés, crowned with the Fleur de Lis symbol. The codex page depicts what is likely the death and resurrection of Alvarado, and the glyph to the right of Alvarado's blond head represents his Nahuatl name, Tonatiuh meaning "Sun". By 1541, the year of Alvarado's death the Quiche and Cakchiquel kingdoms succumbed to Spanish rule.
“Although this Quetzalcoatl was a man [the Indians] they held him to be a god....This Quetzalcoatl who was a mortal and perishable man they called a god. Although he had some appearances of virtue, judging by what they say he was nevertheless a great sorcerer, a friend of demons…and deserves to be assigned to the flames of Hell… When your ancestors said that this Quetzalcoatl went to Tlapallan and would return, that you must await his return, they lied, for we know that he is dead, that his body was reduced to dust and that Our Lord God hurled his soul into Hell where he suffers eternal torment.” ( Sahagun, 1969, book 1, chapter 5)
Quoting Fray Duran:
Moctezuma II, speaking......
"I want you to find out who their chieftain is, since he is the one to whom you must give all these presents. You must discover with absolute certainty if he is the one that our ancestors called Topiltzin or Quetzalcoatl. Our histories say that he abandoned this land but left word that he or his sons would return to reign over this country, to recover the gold, silver and jewels which they left hidden in the mountains. According to the legends, they are to acquire all the wealth that we now possess. If it is really Quetzalcoatl, greet him on my behalf and give him these gifts. You must also order the governor of Cuetlaxtla to provide him with all kinds of food, cooked birds and game. Let him also be given all the types of bread that are baked, together with fruit and gourds of chocolate. Let all of this be placed at the edge of the sea, and from there you and your companion, Cuiltalpitoc, will take it to the ship or house where they are lodged. Give these things to him so that he, his children and companions may eat of them. Notice very carefully whether he eats or not. If he eats and drinks he is surely Quetzalcoatl as this will show that he is familiar with the foods of this land, that he ate them once and has come back to savor them again" (The Aztecs, by Fray Diego Duran 1964 p.264)
Quoting the prophet Chilam Balam:
"Our lord comes, Itza! Our elder brother comes, oh men of Tantun! Receive your guests, the bearded men, the men of the east, the bearers of the sign of God, Lord!" (from Michael Coe's The Maya; Fifth edition 1993 p.164)
This explains why, when Moctezuma's emissaries on the coast and the Tlaxcalteca ruler, Lord Xicotencatl, and finally Moctezuma himself, saw the symbol that "adorned the head of their warrior-god Huitzilopochtli", they accepted it as definitive proof of the return of Quetzalcoatl.
Mushrooms, Trophy-Heads and the Mesoamerican Ballgame:
Many of the observations in this Chapter reflect the work of my father Dr. Stephan F. de Borhegyi, carried out from the 1950s through 1969, and in the book The Pre-Columbian ballgames: A Pan-Mesoamerican Tradition, published posthumously in 1980 by the Milwaukee Public Museum where he had served as the Director. For a comprehensive description of the pre-Columbian ball games and its various and occasionally regional uses of ball-game paraphernalia, and on the "trophy head" cult as related to the games, see (Borhegyi de, S.F. 1960a, 1961c, 1963b, 1965a: 22-23, nn. 23, 28, 1965c, 1968a, 1968c, 1980).
"While human decapitation was a widespread custom throughout both the Old and New Worlds as early as the Paleolithic period, its association with ancient team games seems to have occurred only in central and eastern Asia, Mesoamerica, and South America (for ballgames in Southeast Asia, see Loffler, 1955). The use of severed human heads in the polo games of Tibet, China, and Mongolia goes back at least as far as the Chou Dynasty (approximately 1100 B.C. -250 B.C.) and possibly to Shang times (about 1750 B.C. -1100 B.C.). By the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), the polo game in China had become more refined and human heads were apparently replaced by balls. However, the custom of using "trophy heads" in the game must have survived in modern form in marginal areas, as evidence by the fact that the present day Tajik tribesmen of Afghanistan still use the head of a goat as a ball during the game (Abercombie, 1968). While more studies are needed along this line, it is tempting to suggest that the custom of using human heads in competitive ballgames be added to the growing Pre-Classic inventory of "trans-Pacific contacts" (S.F. de Borhegyi 1980, p.25).
According to Borhegyi: "The ritual ballgame can only be explained as a cross-cultural phenomenon, for it transcended all linguistic barriers in Mesoamerica. Perhaps the games channeled competition short of warfare, between villages or ceremonial centers, into the field of skill and were a means of predetermining the selection of human victims to fulfill the requirements of the cyclical, or annual ritual sacrifices” (Borhegyi de, 1980: 3).
Quoting Borhegyi:
“On the Basis of the widespread use of stone hachas, palmas, yokes, and manoplas, we can safely state that by Middle Classic times the competitive ballgames played in formal courts from northern Mexico to as far south as Honduras and El Salvador achieved a Pan-Mesoamerican magnitude” (de Borhegyi 1980 p.3).
In Mesoamerica, the act of human sacrifice was often compared to the mythic act of creation (Karl A. Taube 1994 p. 229). Since the greatest gift one could offer the gods was one’s own life, emulating the ways of the god-king Quetzalcoatl, who took his own life, to create the fifth sun, the purpose of human sacrifice was to preserve life rather than destroy it (Muriel Porter Weaver 1972 p. 205). Here we see the cyclic nature of life in which death is not the end, but the prelude to rebirth. As the description of Quetzalcoatl's rebirth in the Annals indicates, it was believed throughout Mesoamerica that the rays of Venus as Morning Star as it rises before the heralded rebirth of the sun were tremendously powerful and terribly dangerous (Markman & Markman 1992 p.289). When the planet Venus rises as an Evening Star it comes into view just after sunset and then follows the sun into the underworld for underworld decapitation. When Venus rises as a Morning Star just before sunrise it appears to resurrect the sun from the underworld (Miller & Taube 1993 p.180). According to the Florentine Codex, the planet Venus could be good or evil, but that most people believed it to be a source of dangerous rays.
In the book The Mesoamerican Ballgame (1991), Susan Gillespie writes that sacrificial victims of the ballgame were probably war captives, and that sacred histories relate that even a change in entire political hegemonies was accomplished via a ballgame, which served as dynamic threshold between succeeding empires". She mentions that in an Aztec myth (Mendieta 1945:88), a ballgame defeat by the Toltec king Quetzalcoatl caused him to abandon his capital city, thus marking the end of the Toltec empire". According to Gillespie, Quetzacoatl was the source and legitimator of kingship and dynasties. In the account given in Leyenda de los Soles, the text connects the fall of the Toltec empire with the god Tlaloc. In it the last Toltec ruler Huemac defeats Tlaloc in a ballgame causing Tlaloc's messengers the Tlaloques to take the corn away for four years, a punishment that was instrumental in the fall of the Toltec kingdom (Markman & Markman 1992 p.194).
That the game was a boundary maintenance mechanism between polities, with the sacrificial victim representing a "social decapitation", the removal of a member of the society (sometimes its ruler, its political "head") from the "body politic". "This seems to be the case in Postclassic Highland Guatemala where the ballgame was played between the Quiche and other ethnic groups on the frontier" (Susan Gillespie 1991, Chapter 13, p.340-341). John Fox in his chapter of the book The Mesoamerican Ballgame, writes, "the Quichean peoples of the Postclassic Guatemala Highlands built more ballcourts at this time than anywhere else within the Maya world". "That at a number of outlying Quichean sites, ballcourts appear to have been built upon the takeover of more distance Putun-derived "brethren" (John W. Fox 1991, Chapter 12, p.213-225). According to Fox, Quiche warriors massed together in a single nucleated community with the ballcourt as the centralizing point. Warrior sites like mountain-top fortress at Hacawitz. occupied a pivotal spatial position according to Fox (The Mesoamerican Ballgame 1991 p.219). Fox writes that the Temple of Hacavitz, an attached temple-ballcourt complex, that housed their patron deity Hacavitz, was a beacon of the first morning light and was viewed as Venus emerging from the Underworld's night. It has been proposed that at Hacavitz, the ballgame may have served as a political mechanism for uniting inherently fractious lineages (John W. Fox. 1991 p.221).
John W. Fox:
"The lower-lying ballcourt may have represented ritualized opposition to the "people of darkness" by the "people of light," later allied under the aegis of Nacxit, a spokesman and apparent descendant of the Feathered Serpent" (The Mesoamerican Ballgame 1991 p.219).
"Nacxit is the abbreviated form of the name Ce Acatl Nacxit Quetzalcoatl, mentioned several times in the Cronica Mexicana of Alvarado Tezozomoc as the owner and founder of the throne on which the Aztec emperors sat during their coronation ceremonies. Even after his death the Maya chronicles referred to the "return of Nacxit-Kukulcan", a belief which was general throughout the ancient world and which had such a fatal influence on the destiny of Moctezuma and his empire". "In the Books of the Chilam Balam, when speaking of the prophecy of the return of Kukulcan-Quetzalcoatl, the name given to this personage is Nacxit-Xuchit" (The Annals of the Cakchiquels, 1974 third printing, p.40). Thomas Babcock writes that some of the sources indicate that this Nacxit the Lord King of the East was none other than Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, who abandoned Tula, and founded the city of Chichen Itza (Babcock 2012 p.32).
The Popol Vuh states that the Quiche and Cakchiquels and various other tribes were given their patron deities at Tollan Zuyua (also spelled Tulan). Spanish chronicles also document that when the Aztecs spoke of their history it was always said that they had been preceded by a marvelous people who called themselves Toltec, the people from Tollan, where political dynasties throughout Mesoamerica claimed decent from the rulers of a city called Tollan. There is a passage in the Popol Vuh in which the Quiché tribes migrating to their various homelands, carry their gods on their back, in pack frames: stating...the founders of the Quichéan lineages traveled a great distance eastward “across the sea” to the Toltec city called Tulan Zuyva where they received their gods “whom they then carried home in bundles on their backs” (Christenson, 2007: 198).
"we have found that for which we have searched, they said... "packing their gods on their backs and watching continuously for the appearance of the Morning Star,..."the first god to go out was Tohil, carried in his pack frame by Balam Quitze..."then the god Auilix (also spelled Avilix) was carried out by Balam Acab, (Balam = jaguar) in his pack frame, followed by Hacavitz (Hacawitz) the name of the god received by Mahucutah…
Above is a Type D tripod mushroom stone from Guatemala that has a human effigy on the stem (Late Classic, A.D. 600-900). The mushroom stone figure above wears a traditional mecapal strapped around his forehead (tumpline) to carry what appears to me to be a giant mushroom on his back, or is this a representation of the Quiche god Tohil? According to the Popol Vuh, the founders of the Quichéan lineages traveled to the Toltec city called Tulan Zuyva (Tollan) where they received their gods “whom they then carried home in bundles on their backs” (Allen J. Christenson, 2007: 198) (Photo by Stan Czolowski, A Brief History of Magic Mushrooms in BC [2018], Vancouver Mycological Society: www.vanmyco.org/about-mushrooms/psychedelic/brief-historymagic-mushrooms-bc/)
" The lords used these symbols of rule, which came from where the sun rises, to pierce and cut up their bodies (for the blood sacrifice). There were nine mushroom stones for the Ajpop and the Ajpop Q'amja, and in each case four, three, two, and one staffs with the Quetzal's feathers and green feathers, together with garlands, the Chalchihuites precious stones, with the sagging lower jaw and the bundle of fire for the Temezcal steam bath."
Quoting Dennis Tedlock:
"The stone whose genius or spirit familiar was Tohil was carried in a backpack by Jaguar Quitze, founder of the Cauecs when he left Tulan Zuyua He placed this stone on a mountain that came to be called Patohil, literally "At Tohil" apparently located above or near concealment canyon, where the god Auilix was placed. (Tedlock 1985 p.365)
The temple dedicated to the patron deity Hacawitz is attached to a ballcourt, and according to Fox, the only comparable attached temple-ballcourt complex known so far is at Chichen Itza, where the Temple of the Jaguars is attached to the Great Ballcourt. According to Fox, the Quiche Lords worshiped the patron deity Hacawitz as Venus/Hunahpu. According to Tedlock, During the time when the Quiche lords occupied the citadel of Hacauitz (also spelled Hacavitz, uitz means mountain) the spirit familiars of Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz were regularly seen bathing at this place, a location that is unknown (Tedlock 1985 p366). Was this a reference to a ballcourt, and of bathing in blood? those bringing tribute gave offerings to Tohil before they made their presentations to the Quiche lords (Tedlock 1985 p.365). Tohil is the patron deity of the Quiche who demands blood offerings from his people, and so they sacrifice to him both their own blood and the blood of captives of war. (Mary Miller and Karl Taube, 1993:136, 170). Tohil, gave humans fire, but only after human sacrifice to him had begun. The word hom is a Quiche term for ballcourt, as well as a term for graveyard, which suggests the deadly nature of the game described in the Popol Vuh (Tedlock 1985 p.326) Auilix was also the name of the temple that housed the god Auilix in the citadel of Rotten Cane, its doors facing west across the plaza, towards the temple that housed the god Tohil (Tedlock 1985 p.326). Tohil is referred to in the Annals as Gucumatz, which is “feathered serpent” a variant of the name Quetzalcoatl (Wasson & Wasson 1957 p.281). In Quichean mythology, the sun was carried across the sky by a two-headed serpent (Venus) named Gucumatz (also spelled Cucumatz and K'ucumatz) the Quiche variant of the Toltec god-king Quetzalcoatl-Kukculcan (Fox 1991 Chapter 12, pp.220-221).
A passage from the Popol Vuh identifies Tohil, not as a stone god, but as the charismatic leader of the Quiche Maya and a variant of Quetzalcoatl.
"..Even though Tohil is his name he is the same as the god of the Yaqui people who is named Yolcuat and Quitzalcuat " (Tedlock, 1985:183).
Dear Gordon,
“I discovered two interesting sentences relating to mushrooms from Indian Chronicles, written around 1554 by natives. In the Popol Vuh, translated from the Spanish version by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus Griswold Morley, University of Oklahoma press, Norman Oklahoma, 1950, page 192. And when they found the young of the birds and the deer, they went at once to place the blood of the deer and of the birds in the mouth of the stones that were Tohil, and Avilix. As soon as the blood had been drunk by the gods, the stones spoke, when the priest and the sacrificers came, when they came to bring their offerings. And they did the same before their symbols, burning pericon (?) and holom-ocox (the head of the mushroom),holom=head, and ocox= mushroom. I think this section definitely indicates that the Quiche used mushrooms in connection with their religious ceremonies. I even wonder what made the stones speak ?
"In the annals of the Cakchiquel’s, translated from the Cakchiquel Maya by Adrian Recinos and Delia Goetz, University of Oklahoma press, Norman, Oklahoma 1953, pp. 82-83. “At that time, too, they began to worship the devil. Each seven days, each 13 days, they offered him sacrifices, placing before him, fresh resin, green branches, and fresh bark of the trees, and burning before him a small cat, image of the night. They took him also the mushrooms, which grow at the foot of the trees, and they drew blood from their ears.”
“The Cakchiquel version therefore also connects mushrooms with ceremonial offerings to the gods. This mushroom, I think is our anacate, if it grows at the foot or on the tree”.
Above is a Late Classic period Maya vase K4932 from the Justin Kerr Database (Photo by Justin Kerr). The author proposes that the transparent bundles depicted on this vase painting may actually be filled with Amanita muscaria mushrooms, the Quiche gods “whom they then carried home in bundles on their backs” (Allen J. Christenson, 2007: 198) .
The followers of Quetzalcoatl, I believe, came to the conviction very early on that, under the influence of the sacred mushroom, a divine force actually entered into their body--a state described as "god within". Because mushrooms appeared to spring magically over night from the underworld, apparently sparked by the powers of lightning, wind and rain, it would have been easy for these ancients to conclude that they were divine gifts brought to them by the wind god Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, and the rain god Tlaloc, both of them avatars of the planet Venus.
Above is a scene from Page 24 of the Codex Vindobonensis, that portrays the Wind God Ehecatl-Quetzalcóatl carrying what appears to be a mushroom god on his back, similar to the story in the Popol Vuh, where the founders of the Quichéan lineages traveled a great distance eastward “across the sea” to the Toltec city called Tulan Zuyva where they received their gods “whom they then carried home in bundles on their backs” (Christenson, 2007: 198) According to Ethno-archaeologist Peter Furst, the scene on page 24 depicts the divine establishment of the ritual consumption of sacred mushrooms (1981, pp.151-155).
In the Codex Vindobonensis, it was Ehecatl Quetzalcoatl the Wind God who bestowed mushrooms to his children mankind. Quetzalcoatl as the Wind God is the road sweeper who sweeps the road for the Storm God Tlaloc, who is the provider, "the one who makes things grow".
Above on the left is a incense burner with the head of the Mexican Storm God Tlaloc. The god Tlaloc also known as, "The Master", shared the same temple as Quetzalcoatl (Twin temple) at the great city of Teotihuacan, where archaeologists have found the remains of some 200 sacrificial victims, buried under the temple. As a Rain God Tlaloc controlled thunder and lightning and provided the sustenance in return for the shedding of human blood on earth.
The rulers of Teotihuacan, who were devout followers of the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc, established a vast empire that reached as far south as Kaminalyuju, a large Maya city in the highlands of Guatemala. There is plenty of evidence that Teotihuacan set up enclaves at Kaminaljuyu, and other key sites along the intercontinental mountain range which were heavily influenced in Preclassic times by the powerful Olmec culture. Teotihuacan merchants probably in the guise of warriors and priests had moved into the Maya area around A.D. 400. and established a port of trade center at Kaminaljuyu. Wherever the Teotihuacanos went they took their gods Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc and their sacrificial rituals with them. We know from Maya inscriptions that the Maya city of Tikal, in the lowlands of Guatemala and the Teotihuacanos had been in contact with each other from at least the first century A.D.. Teotihuacan-style objects depicting the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc occur at Tikal and elsewhere in the Maya Lowlands (Schele & Freidel, "Forest of Kings", 1990 p.159).
Linda Schele & David Freidel 1990:
"The most extraordinary record of the conquest [of Uaxactun by Teotihuacan backed Tikal] was inscribed on a Ballcourt Marker that was recently discovered in a lineage compound south of the Lost World group. The ballgame with its decapitation and sacrificial associations had been a central component of Maya ritual since the Late Preclassic period, [Olmec times] but the marker recording the Uaxactun conquest is not typical of the floor-mounted stone disk used in the Maya ballcourts. This Tikal marker, in the shape of a thin cylinder surmounted by a sphere and disk, is nearly identical to ballcourt markers pictured in the murals of the Tlalocan at Teotihuacan itself. It rests on its own Teotihuacan-style platform and a two-paneled inscription wraps around the cylinder base. Its form emulates the style of Teotihuacan ballcourt markers as a reflection of the importance of the Tlaloc-Venus war in its record" (Schele & Freidel, "Forest of Kings", 1990 p.158).
The Tikal ballcourt marker itself was erected by a Maya lord who named himself "the Ahau of Tikal" meaning Lord of Tikal (Schele & Freidel, Forest of Kings 1990 p.159). The artwork on the ballcourt marker known as the "marcador", depicts the image of the Teotihuacan god Tlaloc. No other ballcourt marker of this kind has ever been found at Tikal, and according to Peter Harrison (The Lords of Tikal, 1999 p.81), "this object displays evidence that new war methods were introduced to Tikal at the time of its conflict with Uaxactun".
The author suggests that the "new war methods" that Teotihuacan introduced to Tikal involved the use of sacred mushrooms. Milbrath suggests that Quetzalcoatl's role as a creator god was subordinated to a Venus cult connected with warfare and sacrifice in the later years of Teotihuacan (Milbrath 1999, p. 184). This Teotihuacan military symbolism can be seen on Tikal Stela 31, in which the Early Classic Maya ruler of Tikal, Yax Nuun Ahiin (A.D. 379-406) is portrayed wearing Teotihuacan military garb, and he holds a shield with the image of the Mexican war god Tlaloc. Stela 32 at Tikal which bears no date, depicts Tlaloc or a ruler impersonating Tlaloc. This war-related Tlaloc imagery from Teotihuacan is linked to the religious cult of the Feathered Serpent. The Maya Rulers of Tikal adopted the mushroom-related Quetzalcoatl-Tlaloc war cult that was timed to the planetary conjunctions of Venus. By adopting Teotihuacan military symbolism featuring Tlaloc-Venus warfare, Maya kings aligned themselves with what was then the most powerful political and economic center in Mesoamerica (Andrea Stone & Mark Zender, Reading Maya Art, 2011 p.85).
Quoting Mary Miller and Karl Taube (The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: 1993 p.181)
"These "star wars" were the greatest conflagration in Classic Maya times and took place with increasing frequency during the 8th century, probably contributing to the Classic Maya Collapse".
"The "star wars" theme is supported by Schele and Freidel (1990) and Carlson (1993). They propose that events in the Venus cycle my have regulated the scheduling of the "star wars" and military raids that are recorded in the hieroglyphic inscriptions in the Maya area (source Maya, edited by Peter Schmidt; 1998 p.201 and 204).
Widespread marauding and barbarism, by Toltec influenced Putun or Chontal Maya almost certainly brought about a collapse of classical Maya civilization during the 9th century, and its likely that the weaponization of certain hallucinogenic, or mind altering mushrooms, consumed by warriors before battle contributed to this collapse. Robert Stantley calls this period the Early Toltec period (ca. A.D. 750-950) when settlement patterns were highly aggregated, and many communities were situated in defensible locations, implying a very competitive and highly balkanized political atmosphere" (The Mesoamerican Ballgame 1991 p.7). Consuming Amanita muscaria mushrooms before battle most likely eliminated all sense of fear, hunger, and thirst, and gave the battle-raged warrior a sense of invincibility and courage to fight at the wildest levels. The Amanita muscaria mushroom contains the powerful psychoactive drugs muscimol, and ibotenic acid which is known to cause the feelings of increased strength and stamina.
"The Nahua did not know they were dealing with a mere drug, as we say, a chemical compound with a known molecular structure and a known impact on the human mind. They were dealing with a miraculous, a divine gift" (Wasson, The Wondrous Mushroom; 1980 p.80-81)
Above is a figurine holding what the author proposes is an Amanita muscaria mushroom in his left hand. There is plenty of evidence that ballplayers from the Gulf Coast area wore knee pads with the Ahau glyph design a symbol of Lord, and Maya kingship (Borhegyi de, 1980: 8). Note that the ballplayer figurine above depicts three Ahau glyphs, one on each knee and one on his waist protector called a ballgame yoke. (Ballgame figurine from Denver Museum collection).
The ritual ballgame was played to commemorate the completion of time periods in the sacred calendar, such as a 20-year time period called a katun that always ended on the day Ahau. Most Maya monuments were erected to mark the end of a katun or half- or quarter-katun (Thompson 1963 p.214). It was on that day Ahau, after inferior conjunction that Venus reappears as the Morning Star. The ballgame also emphasized the pervading dualities of night and day, sun and moon, upper world and underworld, rainy season and dry season, and death and rebirth.
Archaeologist Michael Coe writes, "Venus is the only one of the planets for which we can be absolutely sure the Maya made extensive calculations (The Maya fifth edition 1993, p.182). Throughout the Codex Borgia, painted around A.D. 1500, symbols of Venus are directly connected with the ballgame (Whittington 2001 p.42). Of all the planets Venus was the most important in Mesoamerican art, cosmology, and calendrics, and the Tlaloc-Venus cult associated with Central Mexico and the Teotihuacan invasions into the Maya area during the Classic period emphasizes the Feathered Serpent-Tlaloc Venus cult. There is also evidence of a Venus warfare at Chichen Itza (Milbrath 1999, p.196).
Study of astronomically tagged dates suggests that the Evening Star (mostly associated with Tlaloc) was of greater importance during the Classic period, and that the Morning Star (mostly associated with Quetzalcoatl) received greater emphasis during the Postclassic period according to the Venus Almanac of the Dresden Codex (Susan Milbrath p.159). Star-war dates are also recorded at the Maya lowland site of Dos Pilas on Stela 2, (formerly known as Stela 16) and at the site of Aguateca on Stela 2. According to Milbrath both stela bear a "star-over-Seibal" glyph compound that refers to a Venus war event corresponding to the first appearance of the Evening Star. (Milbrath 1999, p.195). Schele and Freidel, link both these stela monuments to an astronomical cult related to Tlaloc. On both monuments the ruler wears a Tlaloc mask and a headdress with a Mexican-style year sign, which is associated with Teotihuacan (Forest of Kings, 1990, p.445) (Milbrath 1999, p.195-196) Stela 11 depicts a powerful ruler impersonating the goggled-eyed Tlaloc at the Maya ruins of Yaxha, on Lake Yaxha, the second largest body of water in El Peten, Guatemala.
Above on the right is a ceramic incense burner lid, that portrays the lineage founder of the Maya city of Copan. The founder of the Copan dynasty bears the name Yax K' uk' Mo', and he is portrayed above wearing padded shoulder protection, and the goggle-eyed mask of Mexican god Tlaloc. According to archaeologist Richard Diel, the ballgame was more of a ritual than a sport, and that it played a crucial role in rituals conducted when classic Maya rulers ascended to the throne. At the Maya ruins of Copan, in present day Honduras, inscriptions on Altar Q tell us that the ruler Yax K' uk' Mo', is credited with the founding of the Copan Dynasty, an event (ballgame?) that took place on A.D. 9/3/426, when Venus was a Morning Star (Milbrath 1999, p. 196-197). Above on the left, carved on a monument at Tikal, is a portrait of the supposed ruler of Teotihuacan known as Spearthrower Owl portrayed wearing the goggle-eyed mask of Tlaloc. It has been suggested that Spearthrower Owl was a ruler of Teotihuacan in the 4th and 5th century, and that he was responsible for the introduction of Tlaloc warfare in the Maya area.
The drawing above is of carved relief panel from the vertical side walls of the South Ball Court at El Tajin, in Veracruz, Mexico. Note what appears to be encoded mushrooms sprouting from the Tree of Life in both creation scenes above and below. (drawings from M.E. Kampen "Classic Veracruz Grotesques and Sacrifical Iconography"). The bearded god above him, with two bodies, likely represents Quetzalcoatl in his twin aspects of the planet Venus representing both the Evening Star and Morning Star.
Quoting Stephan de Borhegyi:
"Through these individualized initiation rites...through auto-sacrifice and self-immolation of the Orpheus-like redeemer god, Quetzalcoatl-Nanhuatzin-Xolotl (the living and deified Quetzalcoatls), the peoples of Classic Mesoamerica were now able to hope for a compensation in the present, and for a happy continuation of life after death (Borhegyi de, 1971, p.90)
The carved relief panel above is one of a series of six carvings in the vertical side walls of the South Ball Court at El Tajin, in Veracruz, Mexico (drawing from Coe, 1994, p.117). The carved panel depicts an individual, a ruler or Underworld god, with were-jaguar fangs, in the sacred act of drawing blood from his penis. In Mesoamerica mushrooms were also most likely consumed by priests before the holy act of penis perforation. In this ritual blood was drawn from the penis and sprinkled upon the exhumed bones or cremated ashes of deceased ancestors, thus emulating in myth the way of Quetzalcoatl. Note that the figure in the water below receiving the blood offering, wears a fish headdress, which may be a symbolic reference to a mythological ancestor from a previous world age, who survived a world ending flood by being changed into a fish, according to the Nahua Five Suns cosmogonic accounts. Most importantly, note that on the left in the scene there is a sacred tree, that appears to encode tiny mushrooms on the tree's branches.
It was through blood sacrifice that Mesoamerican rulers and priests nurtured the gods who had once been their ancestors. Amanita muscaria mushrooms were likely consumed in rituals of human sacrifice and self sacrifice. Self sacrifice by means of ritual bloodletting was likely the most important ritual among the ancient Maya. The act of bloodletting was so sacred in fact that according to Michael D. Coe, today's unofficial "Dean of Maya studies", that the perforator itself was worshiped as a god (from Olmec Bloodletting: An Iconographic Study 1991).
Regarding the Classic Veracruz art style of El Tajin, here is a bold quote from Michael D. Coe, author of the book, Mexico, From the Olmec to the Aztecs:
"This style [El Tajin] can be mistaken for no other in Mexico; on the contrary, its closest affinities seem to lie, for no apparent reason, across the Pacific with the bronze and Iron Age cultures of China" (Michael D. Coe, 1994, p.115).
The late Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist who studied comparative mythology and religion believed that Asian culture was responsible for Mayan myths, religion, and astronomy, and noted that the Mayan eclipse table in the Dresden Codex was identical to a table that Chinese astronomers produced during the Han Dynasty. According to Gunnar Thompson, author of Secret Voyages to the New World, both tables predicted 23 eclipses within a 135-month period when in fact, only 18 eclipses actually occur. In other words, both Mayan and Chinese eclipse tables were faulty; and that they both contained the same errors. Campbell realized that identical errors could not occur if the original observations had been made independently in China and Mexico. Therefore Campbell concluded that the Mayan eclipse table was derived from a Chinese prototype" (Gunnar Thompson, 2010 p.63)
"...according to a scribe in the court of Emperor Laing Wu Ti, a Buddhist missionary claimed that he had returned from a trip to Fu Sang in the year 498 AD. The missionary Hui Shen, said that he had left China on a pilgrimage to spread the blessing of the Buddha to the lands of barbarians across the Eastern Ocean. He visited a country that was situated 20,000 li (or about 6000 miles) to the east of Siberia. That would place Fu Sang in the vicinity of Mexico." (Thompson 2010, p.65).
In pre-Columbian art, ballplayers are often depicted wearing stone objects that archaeologists have called hachas (stone axes) and palmate-stones or palmas. According to ancient murals and relief sculptures, the hachas and palmas were part of the protective gear worn by players in the ballgame. Stone hachas depicted on ceremonial ballgame yokes worn around the ballplayer’s waist, while the tenoned stone heads were set into the walls of formal ballcourts. The subject matter most frequently seen on stone yokes, hachas and palmas are decapitated heads, skulls, skeletons, trophy heads, dismembered hands, limbs and bodies, severed ears, gouged-out eyes, and outstretched tongues, etc. Borhegyi believed that stone hachas, as well as anthropomorphic and zoomorphic vertically- and horizontally-tenoned stone heads associated with the ballgame, were symbolic of the human trophy heads of earlier times (Borhegyi de, 1980: 24-25). Based on the widespread use of this ballgame paraphernalia, he proposed: “that by Middle Classic times the competitive ballgames played in formal courts from northern Mexico to as far south as Honduras and El Salvador achieved a Pan-Mesoamerican magnitude” (Borhegyi de, 1980: 3).
According to Borhegyi (1965: 36), ballgame yokes, hachas, and palmas most likely originated on the Gulf coast of Mexico, where they have been found in the greatest number and variety. Borhegyi made an important connection here; he noted that carved stone yokes worn by ballplayers are rare in Guatemala and those found depict ether serpent heads or death-heads (Borhegyi de, 1980: 7). Stone yokes in association with stone hachas are known from only three other sites in Mesoamerica, at Bilbao and Patulul, Guatemala, and at Viejon in Veracruz, Mexico. Borhegyi proposed that the earlier Olmec-influenced handball game played in this area was probably played in open fields or open plazas, and may have used the severed heads of humans and jaguars to mark out the boundaries or as targets or goals.
In Mesoamerican art, ballplayers are often depicted wearing curious stone objects called "palmate stones" or palmas (above). Palmate stones were likely used for ceremonial purposes and not worn during actual play. A carved relief panel on the vertical side wall of the South Ball Court at El Tajin, in Veracruz, Mexico, shows how the palma was attached to the stone yoke worn by two ballplayers. Note that both ballgame palmas depicted above appear to have steps, thirteen on the left, and nine on the right, that appear to lead up to a symbol that the author believes represents an encoded mushroom in profile. In Mesoamerican iconography, specific numbers like the number thirteen is associated with the sky or heaven, and the number nine is associated with the underworld (Marvin Cohodas "Ballgame Imagery of the Maya Lowlands: History and Iconography" 1991 p.274).
Sometime between the 7th and 8th century, with the fall of Teotihuacán and its influence diminished, northern and central Mexico as well as parts of highland Guatemala and most of the Yucatan Peninsula was dominated by the Toltecs, and it seems that a revival of bloody ball game rituals of Preclassic Olmec fertility rites of human decapitation once again took center stage in the great ceremonial centers of Mesoamerica.
Borhegyi noted the connection between the re-appearance of mushroom stones and a trophy-head cult associated with the ritual act of decapitation, and that many Late Classic (A.D. 600-1000) stone carvings relating to the ballgame depict balls incorporating human skulls or depict human skulls in lieu of balls. He also believed that the stone heads, and later stone rings set in the walls of formal ballcourts, were symbolic replacements for the hanging of the losers’ heads on walls – the trophy heads of earlier times. The hanging of human heads can be found in a passage in the Popol Vuh, in which one of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu, and his father Hun Hunahpu had their decapitated heads hung in a tree (Borhegyi de, 1980: 24-25). The Popol Vuh relates that it was a series of ballgames with the Lords of the Underworld that ultimately decided the fate of their father Hun Hunahpu. In fact, almost all evidence of ballgame sacrifice relates to the act of ritual decapitation, both self-decapitation and by execution, which takes place metaphorically in the underworld. The practice of obtaining trophy heads, especially in warfare, continued until the conquest.
On April 8, 1954, Borhegyi wrote to Wasson noting that: "…mushroom stones follow the same pattern as the three-pronged incensarios, figurines, rimhead vessels etc. That is, they are abundant during the Preclassic, disappear from the archaeological scene completely during the Early Classic, and are revived in somewhat changed form in the Late Classic". The apparent absence of mushroom stones in Early Classic tombs (A.D. 200-400) or within ceremonial precincts suggests that the sacred mushroom cult of Preclassic origin, proposed by Borhegyi to be ritually connected to the ballgame, was discontinued, or banished from the Teotihuacán-occupied, or influenced highland Maya ceremonial centers.
Soon after the end of the Classic period A.D. 800-900 around the time when most of the Classic lowland Maya cities had been mysteriously abandoned, coinciding with the abandonment of valley sites as ceremonial centers, and the beginning of hilltop defensive sites in the highlands of Guatemala, Thompson writes that (1963:23), "Mexicans or Mexican influenced people introduced Mexican religious and architectural ideas into the Maya region. The Toltecs are supposed to have invaded Central America around AD. 900, led by their chief named Ce Tecpatl Mixcoatl the father of Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl.
Toltec groups from Mexico undoubtedly traveled by both land and sea to penetrate the Maya region at various times. There
is ample evidence in the archaeology of Yucatan for a sea-borne
invasion by the Toltecs in the late tenth century (Hedrick, 1971: 262). As far as the Itzá who
invaded Chichén Itzá, one can not be certain whether they were Toltec
conquerors or a Maya-speaking people from Tabasco who absorbed
many central-Mexican traits. According to Friar Diego de Landa, 1566, "They [the Indians] say that he [Kukulcan] came from the West, but are not agreed as to whether he came before or after the Itzas, or with them". "They say that he was well disposed , that he had no wife or children, and that after his return he was regarded in Mexico as one of their gods, and called Cezalcohuati [Quetzalcoatl]" (Landa, 1566, Yucatan Before and after the Conquest, translated by Gates 1978, p.10).
Quoting archaeologist E. Wyllys Andrews IV
"The Toltecs appear to have stimulated the last upward surge of Maya civilization. There origins are uncertain; their disappearance seems to represent their absorption by the Maya. Whoever they were, their impact on the Maya physical type and language was minimal" (The Classic Maya Collapse 1973 p. 255).
The Quiche and Cakchiquel being Maya, are likely the ancestors of the tribes that invaded Guatemala, who imposed themselves, and then were absorbed by the Maya-speaking native population ? It seems that the mushroom stone cult was either adopted by the new comers after their arrival, or else common to the native population and to the invaders.
The history of the Quiche peregrination of their ancestors, a Nonoalca-Pipil-Toltec-Chichimec group or Putun Maya called Nonoalca, is described in detail in the Popol Vuh (Facts and Artifacts of Ancient Middle America 1978 p. 135) The Nonoalca-Pipil-Toltec-Chichimec group or Nonoualcas inhabited the land south of Veracruz; their country was the Tlapallan of which the old histories speak of (Annals of the Cakchiquels 1953 third printing 1974 p.57). It was in Tlapallan that is, the Laguna de Terminos region, where the Toltec culture hero Topiltzen Quetzalcóatl settled down with a group of his followers after he was expelled by his enemies from Tula (Tollán), sometime around 960 A.D. It was in the Laguna de Terminos region, that Quetzalcoatl settled among some Chontal Mayas tribes and introduced them to a new religious cult, based on the consumption of mushrooms and the worship of idols.
According to Borhegyi, the Teotihuacan overlords were repressing various native highland Maya cults or rituals during Early Classic times, related to the three-pronged censer cult, figurine cult, and mushroom cult, etc..."These cults were much in vogue during Pre-Classic times in the Maya Highlands, then disappear during the Classic Period or forced underground, and reassert themselves again in the Late Classic after the fall of Teotihuacan" (letter from Borhegyi to Wasson, February 12, 1968).
According to the Popol Vuh, some of these Pipil groups continued on to Guatemala and became the forebears of the Quiché Maya. Borhegyi believed that it was around this time that the plain, un-carved type of mushroom stone must have been re-introduced to Guatemala and the Cotzumalhuapa area along with new ball game rules and rituals during the Late Classic period, by these “Tajinized Nonoalca” Pipil groups (Borhegyi de, 1965: 37; Borhegyi de, 1980: 25; Borhegyi letter to Wasson, November 30, 1953, Wasson Archives).
According to Borhegyi, "It's likely that mushroom stones persisted during these times but, there is no stratigraphic evidence for this. If the Teotihuacanos did indeed consume sacred mushrooms in their rituals, they did not like them represented and venerated in the form of stone images. The total absence of mushroom stones in the Valley of Mexico and other Teotihuacan dominated areas would substantiate my statement" (letter from Borhegyi to Wasson, February 12, 1968)
The Cotzumalhuapa sculptures have been thought to be of Late Classic date and possibly of non-Maya, Pipil manufacture. But according to Borhegyi all the material scuba divers discovered in one area of Lake Amatitlan called Lavaderos (Site 1 A) is of Early Classic date A.D. 300-600 (S.F. de Borhegyi 1960, Field Report Lake Amatitlan). This coincides with the Teotihuacan-Pipil migration into the Guatemala Highlands during the Early Classic period (A.D. 400-500). At least six mushroom stones (Type C and D) have been found in the waters of Lake Amatitlan, in the Central Guatemalan Highlands (S.F. de Borhegyi 1960, Field Report Lake Amatitlan). Type C mushroom stones (300 BC. to 200 AD.) Type D tripod mushroom stones (600-900 AD.).
Quoting Stephan de Borhegyi:
"It's quite possible that the Early Classic Teotihuacan influence from Mexico, felt almost everywhere in the Guatemala Highlands, was actually brought by migrating Tajin influenced Pipil groups to the Maya area" (S.F. de Borhegyi 1960, Field Report Lake Amatitlan).
Borhegyi noted that ballplayers depicted on Monument 27 at El Baúl wear tite-fitting helmets, and hand-gloves that represents either the local survival of the Olmec influenced Preclassic handball game, or a late Classic revival of the game in the area (Borhegyi de, 1980: 16). He adds that: “These zones were once influenced by the Olmecs and later by ‘warlike’ Mexican Gulf Coast groups. One wonders if these grisly sacrificial activities are native to this area or are Pre-Classic survivals of a game once played with human heads with long, flowing hair in the Tajín and La Venta areas and in parts of Oaxaca”. It seems likely that Toltec culture associated with Quetzalcoatl and the ballgame originated on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz.
Borhegyi postulated several waves of Pipil intrusions into the Maya area, and proposed that these migrations, were not migrating families but rather religious leaders or merchants under military protection. According to Borhegyi there is archaeological evidence to support the idea that woman were left behind and took no part in the foreign occupation (Borhegyi 1965b). The second Pipil intrusion into the highland Maya area in the Late Classic period after the destruction of Teotihuacan, A.D. 700-900 coincides with the abandonment of the valley sites and the beginnings of hilltop defensive sites (Muriel Porter Weaver 1972 p. 149-152). Borhegyi attributes this Tajin influenced Pipil group for the initial warlike conditions that pushed settlements to the hilltops (Borhegyi 1965a:30-41).
According to Borhegyi, a completely new group of priest-rulers came into power in the Late Classic bringing with them a form of ancestor worship associated with the vision-serpent and the ritual ballgame (Borhegyi de, 1965: 31). These groups were all followers of the Toltec god-king Quetzalcoatl, and in their migration from the Mexican Gulf Coast, into the Guatemala Highlands and along the Pacific slope, they brought with them an earlier Olmec culture including ballgame rituals of human decapitation, and trophy head cult linked to a mushroom Venus cult. The Quiche rulers of Utatlan included pieces of "heirloom Gulf Coast pottery vessels" in a cache placed in a bench in one of the capital's council buildings (Henderson 1997 p. 252).
Spanish chronicler Fray Diego Duran writes that war was called xochiyaoyotl, which means "Flowery War". Death to those who died in battle was called xochimiquiztli, meaning "Flowery Death" or "Blissful Death" or "Fortunate Death". Fray Alonso de Molina's big lexicon of the Nahuatl language (language of the Aztecs) published in 1571, Molina gives us another word for mushroom, xochinanacatl, meaning flower mushroom, xochitl meaning flower and nanacatl meaning mushroom (Wasson 1980, p80).
According to Wasson (1962 p.38) a Nahuatl poem translated by Angel Maria Garibay, titled, "Dolor en la Amistad" (c. 1600) "mentions expressly the Sacred Mushrooms". In other poems from the same collection, titled Xochimapictli, coleccion de Poemas nahuas, 1959, the word xochi, "flowers" is used in a way that suggests it was a metaphor used for sacred mushrooms. This reference is reinforced by Alonso de Molina's lexicon (Vocabulario en Lengua Castellana y Mexicana 1571) where xochinanacatl is translated honguillos que embeodan, "little mushrooms that inebriate" (Wasson and de Borhegyi 1962, The Hallucinogenic Mushrooms of Mexico and Psilocybin: A Bibliography, p. 37 1962). (From "Dolor en la Amistaad" (A.D. 1600) Anonymous, translated by Angel Maria Garibay. No. 37 in Xochimapictli, coleccion de Poemas nahuas. Mexico City, 1959)
It’s tempting to think that the Itzás, who claimed Toltec ancestry, and the Quiché and Cakchiquel who were also Nahuatl-influenced Chontal Mayas, who claimed Toltec ancestry, may have been responsible for the so-called "Collapse of Classic Maya civilization". The Toltec domination of the Mayas is one of the most decisive events in Mesoamerican history. The rise of Toltec civilization and its eventual decline are connected with the figure of Quetzalcoatl. The feathered serpent cult at Chichen Itza (A.D. 800-1250) is associated with images of warriors armed with weapons, and Venus glyphs in a non-Maya style that appear with images of the feathered serpent in a variety of contexts (Milbrath, 1999 p.181). Archaeoastronomer Susan Milbrath writes, "In light of Quetzalcoatl's direct link with Chichen Itza in the chronicles, it is not surprising that his images are very common at the site" (Milbrath, 1999 p.181). The Itzas, and the Quiché and Cakchiquels, were all devout followers of the feathered serpent cult, and thus Quetzalcoatl's mushroom Venus religion, emphasizing celestial worship, warfare and ballgame sacrifice.
To date, there are almost ninety different theories or variations of theories purporting to explain the Classic Maya Collapse, and no mention of the role that mushrooms and the the ballgame may have played. The Classic Maya Collapse, which took place between A.D. 900 and A.D. 1000, is when archaeologists see an abrupt halt of any new construction and that dated monuments with Long Count dates called stelae ceased to be erected. It is during this time period in the Central lowlands of Guatemala that archaeologists see a sudden decline in population or the abandonment of Maya cities. Maya archaeologist Patrick Culbert writes that “the evidence all indicated that the Classic Maya had disappeared somewhere in the time-shrouded past and had left no modern descendants with even a faint touch of their glory and accomplishments” (1974: 105). We are led to believe that some mysterious fate befell the Classic Maya, and that people just suddenly disappeared and that the once great Maya cities of the Classic Period were all abandoned. At the same time there was also the deliberate abandonment of most of the Guatemala highland valley sites shortly before the close of the period. Site after site was deserted, never to be reoccupied, in spite of the fact that many of the centers had been in use for more than two millennia.
Quoting Maya archaeologist J. Eric S. Thompson
" ...it is reasonable to assume that Quetzalcoatl, on being driven from Tula, went to Chichen Itza, because he knew that fellow-countrymen or, more probably, coreligionists sympathetic to him were already established there. It is for that reason I suggested a date of about A.D. 950 for the start of the Mexican period" (J. Eric S. Thompson 1963 p.23).
What is referred to as the "Mexican Period" or "Toltec Maya" period in Yucatan are the years from A.D. 900 to 1224, when Chichen Itza was dominated by the Toltecs (Muriel Porter Weaver 1972 p.222). Toltec influence on the Maya of Yucatan can easily be seen in the architectural design of temples, palace monuments and ballcourts at the ruins of Chichén Itzá. Toltec chacmools similar to ones from Tula, are found atop the temples of Chichen Itza. Toltec feathered serpents appear at Chichen Itza where we find the Toltec cult of Quetzalcoatl or Kukulcan (feathered serpent) mingling with the Mayan long-nosed god Chaac. Again many authorities consider God B to represent Kukulcan, whose Toltec/Aztec equivalent is Quetzalcoatl (Herbert Spinden 1975 p.62). We find images of decapitated ballplayers carved on the walls of formal ballcourts at El Tajín and Chichén Itzá that supports the western origin of the ballgame carried by the Putún-descended peoples when they relocated north to Chichén Itzá and south to the Guatemala Highlands.
Borhegyi called into question the construction date of the Great Ballcourt at Chichén Itzá, one of seven ball courts known to exist. He and fellow archaeologist Lee A. Parsons (1969:174 Table 7) believed that this Great Ballcourt was built much earlier than previously supposed, possibly Mid to Late Classic period (Borhegyi, de, 1980: 12, 25). Borhegyi believed that the stone ballcourt rings at the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza were an Early Post-Classic addition and indicated a later change of rules in the way the game was played. He further believed the gruesome human decapitation scenes and human "skull balls" were Late Classic and were influenced by the "Tajínized Nonoalca" (Pipils) or the Olmeca-Xicallanca who spread during that period from the Gulf Coast to Yucatan and through the Petén rainforest as far as the Pacific coast of Guatemala (Borhegyi de, 1980: 25). Ballgame reliefs from the Pacific Slope of Guatemala are contemporary with those of the Great Ball Court complex at Chichen Itza (Susan Milbrath 1999 p.82).
Spanish chronicler Fray Sahagun, who was the first to report mushroom rituals among the Aztecs, wrote that the Toltecs consumed hallucinogens before battle (mushroom Venus Tlaloc warfare) to enhance bravery and strength (Furst 1972, p.12). Borhegyi’s theory for the Classic Maya collapse was of a Toltec invasion into the Maya region by Nahuatl-influenced Chontal Maya tribes from the Laguna de Terminos region.
On March 22, 1954, Borhegyi wrote to Wasson:
"Dear Gordon,
This is a completely new theory that I have recently formulated. It is quite revolutionary, and I will try to publish it as soon as possible. When you carefully check the Annals of the Cakchiqueles and the Popol Vuh, you will read that, in spite of the fact that the Quiché and Cakchiquel tribes claim origin in the legendary city of Tollán, throughout their trip until they reach the Guatemalan Highlands (they) encounter only tribes speaking a language similar to their own. The country between the Laguna de Terminos and the Usumacinta region was and still is populated by Chol Mayas. Consequently, the Quiché and Cakchiqueles must have understood this language, and therefore were also Maya speakers. When they reached Guatemala, they met the Maya and, in the Annals, they referred to them as "stutterers", thus implying that they spoke a language somewhat similar to their own. J. Eric Thompson, a few years ago advanced the theory that the Itzás who came to Chichén Itzá about 1000 A.D. were Mexican-influenced Chontal Maya Indians from the Laguna de Terminos region. The Yucatecan Mayas called the Itzá invaders "stutterers", or "people who speak our language brokenly". I therefore suggest that the Quichés and Cakchiqueles were equally Nahuatl-influenced Chontal Mayas. I think that the story is as follows: the priest king Quetzalcóatl/Kukulcán/Gucumatz was expelled by his enemies from Tula (Tollán), sometime around 960 A.D. He left with a small group of his followers and went to Tlapallan, that is, the Laguna de Terminos region. Here he apparently settled down. It would seem that some of the Chontal tribes accepted the mushroom cult introduced by him and after a few years, the pressure of enemy tribes forced them to move on, led by descendants of Quetzalcóatl and his followers. Some went northeast to Chichén Itzá; others moved southward following the Usumacinta toward Guatemala. The archaeological picture of Northern Guatemala favors this theory. Linguistically, it is far more plausible than the other. The few leaders could still refer to their homeland as Tollán, and probably continued for a while to speak Nahuatl. The great mass of followers, however, did not speak this language and therefore probably spoke Chontal Maya. The Quiché and Cakchiquel Maya are, of course, linguistically related to the Chol and Chontal Maya. Please understand, this is a completely new theory. I am in the process of gathering archaeological data, which might support it."
In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, Tollan means "place of reeds" and is invoked in many early Colonial native language sources, ranging from Central Mexico to the Maya area, as a great foreign city from which elites claimed their origin because of its singular status in legitimating political power.
One of the early Spanish chroniclers, Diego Muñoz Camargo, recorded that the grand city of Cholula, famous for the Great Pyramid dedicated to Quetzalcóatl, was the capital of the Olmeca Xicallanca who were from the important coastal trading center of Xicalango, located in southern Campeche. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, this was an important coastal trading center controlled by a seafaring people known as the Putún Maya who may have been related either culturally or linguistically to an earlier Olmec culture. Archaeologist J. Eric S. Thompson proposed that the Itzá who came into northern Yucatan were Chontal Mayan speakers (Thompson, 1970: 3-5). Thompson described the Itzá’s as the Putún Maya, a group of Mexicanized Chontal Mayan speakers from the Gulf coastal area, who were sea traders who controlled Chichén Itzá shortly after A.D. 900. Most historians believe now that the God-king Kukulcán and the Toltec priest-ruler Topiltzin Quetzacóatl, both meaning "Plumed Serpent," were one and the same man. This historic figure Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl was expelled by his enemies from Tula (Tollán), sometime around 960 A.D. where he then traveled to Cholula and then on to Yucatan and Chichén Itzá where he was called Kukulcan. According to The Annals of the Cakchiquels, "This great civilizer, who was well received by the Mayas, probably supervised the reconstruction of Chichén Itzá and built also another great city, Mayapan" (The Annals of the Cakchiquels, 1974 third printing, p.38). According to legend Mayapan was founded by a great ruler Kukulcan in 1250 A.D. following the decline of Chichén Itzá. It should be noted that the author seriously questions the founding of the city of Mayapan by Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl. Although there are about 4,000 buildings spread out over an area of about four square kilometers, no ballcourts have ever been found at the ruins of Mayapan or at Tulum.
Cholula emerges as the cultural giant where the worship of Quetzalcóatl flourished. Spanish chronicler Friar Toribio de Benavente, affectionately called Motolinia by the Indians, wrote in his Memoriales that followers of Quetzalcóatl came to Cholula to give their lives in sacrifice, in return for immortality. He described the great ceremony to Quetzalcóatl which lasted eight days which, coincidentally, is the same number of days that, according to legend, Quetzalcóatl was in the underworld creating humanity by bloodletting on the bones of his father and the bones of past generations. He then emerged from the underworld resurrected as the Morning Star.
Motolinia named a star Lucifer (most likely Venus) which the Indians adored “more than any other save the sun, and performed more ritual sacrifices for it than for any other creature, celestial or terrestrial” (LaFaye, 1987: 141).
In the 16th century, Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sahagún recorded in his Florentine Codex (Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España, 1547-1582) that: "They (the Indians) were very devout. Only one was their God; they showed all attention to, they called upon, they prayed to one by the name of Quetzalcóatl … the one that was perfect in the performance of all the customs, exercises and learning (wisdom) observed by the ministers of the idols, was elected highest pontiff; he was elected by the king or chief and all the principals (foremost men), and they called him Quetzalcóatl (Sahagún "The History of Ancient Mexico" 1932 p.202).
Friar Sahagún (in book 9 of 12) refers to mushrooms with a group of traveling priests merchants known as the pochtecas, meaning merchants who lead because they were followers of Quetzalcóatl, who they worshiped under the patron name Yiacatecuhtli or Yacateuctli, Lord of the Vanguard. He describes the mushroom’s effects and their use in several passages of his Florentine Codex (“Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España”). He records how the merchants celebrated the return from a successful business trip with a wild mushroom party.
The pochteca (pochtecatl), who occupied a high status in Aztec society acquiring luxury goods for its ruler, journeyed under military protection, in all directions carrying merchandise as well as spreading the religion of their god-king Quetzalcóatl. Sahagún also called these wealthy merchants Acxoteca (The History of Ancient Mexico 1932 p.223). According to master historian of Indian Mexico, Chimalpahin (I-21-32, 41) states that the Acxoteca were said to have come from Tula, the famed home of the Toltecs (Susan Schroeder 1991 "Chimalpahin & the Kingdoms of Chalco" p.45).
The pochteca are the subject of Sahagun's Book 9 of the Florentine Codex, where it mentions: "The eating of mushrooms was sometimes also part of a longer ceremony performed by merchants returning from a trading expedition to the coast lands. The merchants, who arrived on a day of favorable aspect, organized a feast and ceremony of thanksgiving also on a day of favorable aspect. As a prelude to the ceremony of eating mushrooms, they sacrificed a quail, offered incense to the four directions, and made offerings to the gods of flowers and fragrant herbs. The eating of mushrooms took place in the earlier part of the evening. At midnight a feast followed, and toward dawn the various offerings to the gods, or the remains of them, were ceremonially buried" (Sahagún, Book 9 chapter viii; Florentine Codex, fol 3 Ir-3 Iv).
The ancestors of the Quiché and Cakchiqueles people are supposed to have arrived in their present location as conquerors around the 12th century. The general belief has been that the Quiché and Cakchiqueles who both claimed Toltec ancestry, entered the Guatemalan highlands from the eastern lowlands after the abandonment of Chichén Itzá in Yucatan. According to Thompson Chichen Itza was sacked and its inhabitants driven out by about A.D. 1200, according to Colonial documents (Thompson 1963 p.34). The date in textbooks for the Quiché entry into the Guatemala Highlands has been set between A.D. 1250-1300 (Porter Weaver, 1981: 477). According to Wikipeda, the Quiche migration into the Guatemala highlands was in A.D. 1225. The Quiché Maya, whose traditions and history are recorded in the Popol Vuh, claim that their migration was led under the spiritual “guidance” of their patron god named Tohil who is now considered to be a variant of Quetzalcóatl and Kukulcan (Hugh Fox, 1987: 248).
In a letter to Borhegyi from J. Eric Thompson, dated November 30, 1955:
"I wonder what is your archaeological evidence for placing the Pipil migration to Cotzumalhuapa at A.D. 900--1000? Evidence at El Baul was that the latest phase, except for a little surface material, contained San Juan plumbate, which is fairly securely placed as Tepeu".
The Toltec influenced Pipils, (Mexican invaders) a term that applies loosely to the speech and culture of various Nahuat-speaking groups whose influence (deity cults and art styles) penetrated the Guatemala Highlands and Pacific coastal area from Central Mexico. The Pipils probably brought with them their ballgame paraphernalia, such as stone yokes, and thin stone ballgame hachas, as well as plumbate pottery, and tenoned stone heads. The sculptures at the Cotzumalhuapa sites along the Pacific coastal area of Guatemala and Mexico have been attributed to the Pipils (Herbert J. Spinden 1975 p.214). Ballgame reliefs from the Pacific Slope of Guatemala are contemporary with those of the Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza.
According to S.W. Miles, the archaeologist Robert Wauchope, who worked at three main sites at Gumaarcah, Iximche, and Zacualpa during the late 1940s, could not find “archaeological coordination earlier than ca. A.D. 1300, between ceramics and genealogical reckoning” (Miles, 1965: 282-283). Borhegyi reported the finding of a (Type C) mushroom stone fragment from an excavation at the Kakchiquel Maya capital of Iximche in the Central Guatemalan Highlands ("Mushroom Stone Discoveries" Amatitlan Field Report 1960).
Borhegyi questioned this date in his letter to Wauchope dated April 8, 1954 (Milwaukee Public Museum Archives), explaining: I will try to put down in as concise form as possible, my questions concerning Quiche archaeology:
"Dear Bob,
As you know, Dick Woodbury found cremations in Tohil effigy jars at Zaculeu. If cremations are to be connected with the Quiche expansion under Quicab this would mean that Zaculeu was occupied by them during the Early Post-Classic period. 2) You postulated Quicab's reign in the middle of the 15th century. These lately discovered cremations at Zaculeu would infer an earlier date for this reign, i.e., around 1300. If I remember correctly, you derive the date for Quicab's reign from a passage in the Annals of the Cakchiquels, which states that the daughter-in-law of Quicab died in 1507. Can it be that this passage refers to Quicab II, and not to Quicab I? In this case, Quicab I could have reigned in 1300. 3) I think the arrival of the Quiche-Cakchiquel's to Guatemala (probably following the Usumacinta River from the Laguna de Terminos) can be correlated with the first appearance of Fine Orange X wares, Mexican onyx vases, Tohil plumbate, and effigy support tripod bowls. ... On the other hand, the Quiche expansion under the reign of King Quicab falls together with the distribution of white-on-red ware, red on buff ware, red-and-black-on-white ware, and micaceous ware. This data also suggests a reign of around 1300 for Quicab. 4) I have long wondered about the quick "Mayanization" of the Quiche and Cakchiquel tribes, who supposedly came from Tulan. Using Morris Swadesh's lexicostatistical system, it is quite improbable that by the time of the conquest all these tribes could have spoken Maya with practically no retention of their original language. Could it be that the Quiche and Cakchiquels, like the Itzas and Xius of Yucatan were actually Chontal speaking Mayas from the Laguna de Terminos region, who wandered southward after being influenced by Nahuatl speaking groups? I wonder if Quetzalcoatl, after leaving Tula for Tlapallan, settled among these Chontal Mayas and introduced among them a new religious cult, based on the worship of idols. Could it be that only a few of Quetzalcoatl's followers (who actually could trace their origin to Tula) led these Chontal Mayas down into Guatemala? If so, they must have arrived to the borders of Guatemala around 1000 and not, as you once postulated, around 1300. Their arrival, around 1000 AD coincides with the appearance of Fine Orange X wares, Tohil plumbate etc. (we have lately found Tohil plumbate sherds at Altar de Sacrificios and at Santa Amelia). I would appreciate very much your comments on this hypothesis and questions mentioned above. If you'd like, I could even write it up for the Research Records, amplified with the latest distributional studies of the abovementioned wares. At any rate, I would be very much interested to know your opinion"
As ever, Steve
The archaeological picture of Northern Guatemala favors this theory. Borhegyi believed the Quiché and Cakchiquel Maya were also Nahuatl-influenced Chontal Mayas as both were linguistically related and shared a common Toltec-inspired genealogical origin (Borhegyi letter to Wasson, March 22, 1954). The loyalty of these groups to their hometown of Tula is evident in the native legends relating to various long journeys taken by the Quiche and Cakchiquel royal princes to receive the insignia of royalty and the picture writings of Tulan from the court of Nacxit the Lord King of the East (Kukulkan, Quetzalcoatl?) (S.F. de Borhegyi 1965a p.54).
Quiche and Cakchiquel histories describe ceremonies in which Naxit the Lord King of the East invested highland Maya rulers with authority and sovereignty in his palace at Tollan (Henderson 1997 p.255). As they left Tulan the Popol Vuh has them saying, "This is not our home; let us go and see that we prosper" It should be mentioned again that sources indicate that Nacxit was none other than Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, who abandoned Tula, and founded Chichen Itza (Babcock 2012 p.32). "Nacxit is the abbreviated form of the name Ce Acatl Nacxit Quetzalcoatl, mentioned several times in the Cronica Mexicana of Alvarado Tezozomoc as the owner and founder of the throne on which the Aztec emperors sat during their coronation ceremonies. Even after his death the Maya chronicles referred to the "return of Nacxit-Kukulcan", a belief which was general throughout the ancient world and which had such a fatal influence on the destiny of Moctezuma and his empire" (Babcock 2012 p.32).
It's known that certain rulers took the name of Quetzalcoatl up until the fall of Tula in A.D. 1070, under the reign of Huemac-Quetzalcoatl. In bearing the title of Feathered Serpent (Quetzalcoatl Kukulcan) Nacxit also bore the god-powers of the feathered serpent. The cult of the feathered serpent that emerges from the Mexican Highlands begins to spread around the time when the priest king Quetzalcóatl/Kukulcán/Gucumatz was expelled by his enemies from Tula (Tollán), sometime around A.D. 960. Topiltson Quetzalcoatl and his mushroom-Venus cult spread as far south as Guatemala and El Salvador, and as far north as Yucatan, and Chichen Itza where he appeared as Lord Kukulcan. Yucatan chronicles link Nacxit with Chichen Itza and with Kukulcan (Henderson 1997 p.256).
According to Babcock, the ethnohistoric sources appear to have accurate description and place names for the journey east, and a reliable record of movement of Chontal-Nahua military bands from the Tabasco-Veracruz area to the highlands of Guatemala where they became the ruling elite of the Quiche Maya (Babcock 2012 p.32).
Toltec influence can be seen throughout the Guatemala Highlands at a number of archaeological sites like Kaminaljuyú and Zacuala, and along the Pacific slope area known for its important cacao plantations, a region in which the sculptural style at sites like El Baúl, Bilbao and El Castillo is a mixture of both Maya and Mexican elements called Cotzumalhuapa. Sites like Kaminaljuyu had at least 11 ballcourts by the end of the Late Classic period (The Mesoamerican Ballgame 1991 p.201).
More recent archaeological evidence suggests that Borhegyi’s original date of A.D. 1000 was right after all. One archaeological site along the Pacific slope that provides clear evidence of both Olmec and Maya development is the archaeological site of Tak’alik Ab’aj (formerly called Abaj Takalik), a pre-Columbian archaeological site in Guatemala. This area runs along the intercontinental mountain range which was heavily influenced in Preclassic times by the powerful Olmec culture.
Maya archaeologist Marion Popenoe de Hatch (2005: 1) noted that:
"According to the stratigraphic evidence and the analysis of ceramics recovered in recent excavation, it would seem that Tak’alik Ab’aj was conquered by K’iche (Quiche) groups at the beginning of the Early Postclassic period (ca. 1000 AD). This date goes a long way back from the period comprised between 1400 and 1450 AD that many ethno-historians claimed for the K’iche expansion towards the South Coast of Guatemala"… "The problem is when, and the Tak’alik Ab’aj information suggests that the expansion had been initiated at the beginning of the Early Postclassic period and not at the beginning of the Late Postclassic, that is to say around 1000 AD, contemporary to the dispersion of the Tihil Plumbate pottery. The chronicle states that the conquest took place in 1300 AD, but archaeological evidence shows that this happened around three centuries prior to that date, that is, around 1000 AD."
CHAPTER IV:
In the Popol Vuh, a book on the mythology, astronomy, history, religion, and the legends of the Quiche and Cakchiquel people, there are numerous passages that reveal obscure connections between Maya creation myths, the ballgame, ritual decapitation, self decapitation (Borhegyi,1969: 501) and Maya astronomy, involving the movement of the sun, moon, and the planet Venus that are commonly depicted on Maya vase paintings.
Anthropologist Dennis Tedlock who translated the Popol Vuh into English in 1985, identified five episodes in the Popol Vuh involving underworld decapitation and self-decapitation. In one episode, the ball playing Hero Twins decapitate themselves in the underworld in order to come back to life. Tedlock writes that, based on evidence discovered by Borhegyi, he does not rule out the presence of an Amanita muscaria mushroom cult in the Popol Vuh (Tedlock, 1985: 250).
Quoting Susan Gillespie's (1991:317)
"The decapitation scenes that pervade the symbolism of the Mesoamerican game lead to an investigation of "Rolling Head" myths which are found in many New World societies and are intimately related to games. I argue that decapitation is a metonym for dismemberment, and that dismemberment, the separating of the body into its constituent parts, is metaphorically linked to the separation of time into agricultural seasons which are marked by the periodic movements of celestial bodies" (Susan Gillespie 1991, Chapter 13, p.317)
Evidence for ballgame related sacrifice by decapitation is overwhelming (e.g. Borhegyi 1969:507, 509, 1980, Knauth 1961). Wasson believed that the origin of ritual decapitation may lay in the mushroom ritual itself and terminology used in reference to mushroom parts. In a letter to Borhegyi dated June 7, 1954, he writes of the Mixe (a linguistic group of northeast Oaxaca) continuing use of the psilocybin mushroom:
"The cap of the mushroom in Mije (or Mixe) is called kobahk, the same word for head. In Kiche and Kakchiquel it is doubtless the same, and kolom ocox is not “mushroom heads”, but mushroom caps, or in scientific terminology, the pileus of the mushroom. The Mije in their mushroom cult always sever the stem or stipe (in Mije, tek is “leg”) from the cap, and the cap alone is eaten. Great insistence is laid on this separation of cap from stem. This is in accordance with the offering of “mushroom head” in the Annals of the Cakchiqueles and the Popol Vuh. The writers had in mind the removal of the stems. The top of the cap is yellow and the rest is the color of coffee, with the gills of a color between yellow and coffee. They call this mushroom, pitpa "thread-like", the smallest, perhaps 2 horizontal fingers high, with a cap small for the height, growing everywhere in clean earth, often along the mountain trails with many in a single place. In Mije the cap of the mushroom is called the "head" "kobahk in the dialect of Mazatlán. When the “heads” are consumed, they are not chewed, but swallowed fast one after the other, in pairs".
Dennis Tedlock (1991:172-173) interprets the five episodes involving decapitated heads or balls representing heads, in the Popol Vuh as representing the five cycles in the Venus Almanac. Tedlock suggests that in a previous world age twin brothers known as Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu represented the Morning Star playing the ballgame on the eastern horizon. The Popol Vuh tells us that these twin gods, were sacrificed by decapitation in the underworld after losing a ballgame against the Lords of the Death, and that their bodies were buried under the ballcourt at the Place of Ballgame Sacrifice. When Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu were killed the Morning Star disappeared. Tedlock suggests that Hun Hunahpu's decapitated head placed in a tree by order of the Lords of the Underworld, as a symbol of the first visibility of the Evening Star above the western horizon. The sons of Hun Hunahpu, another set of twin boys known as the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, follow their father and uncle into the Underworld to avenge their deaths. They also play a ballgame against the Lords of Xibalba (underworld), only to lose to the Death gods and be decapitated in the Underworld. Tedlock interprets that the Hero Twins took the role of the Morning Star replacing their father and uncle, when they journeyed into the Underworld. The Twins search for their father and go to the Place of Ballgame Sacrifice, where their father still lies. The Popol Vuh recounts that the Hero Twins never resurrect their father from the Underworld, instead they try to put him back together again, but fail because they can't remember all the names of his body parts, so they leave him at the Place of Ballgame Sacrifice, where they promises him he will be worshiped by future generations (Tedlock 1985) (Milbrath 1999 p.159). This suggests that the Hero Twins father Hun Hunahpu (1 Ahau) is the Morning Star who stays behind to rule the Underworld and that his sons Hunahpu and Xbalanque are transformed into the Sun and Moon. David Kelley identifies Hun Hunahpu as the Maize God and the embodiment of Venus noting that his name means 1 (Hun Ahau).
Above is a (Type A) effigy mushroom stone, on display in the museum located at the archaeological site of Iximché, the capital of the Cakchiquel Maya in the western highlands of Guatemala. Although this mushroom stone may portray the image of the Mexican goggle-eyed god Tlaloc, it's tempting to think, that this might be the idol of the Quiche god Tohil, that the Cakchiquel warriors stole from the Quiché people that deprived them of their divine power, and that the Quiché Maya did not dare attack the Cakchiquels again on their home ground ? (source...Sachse, Frauke, 2001. “The Martial Dynasties: the Postclassic in the Maya Highlands”. In: Nikolai Grube (ed.) Maya, Divine Kings of the Rain Forest) (Photo by Carl de Borhegyi).
" The lords used these symbols of rule, which came from where the sun rises, to pierce and cut up their bodies (for the blood sacrifice). There were nine mushroom stones for the Ajpop and the Ajpop Q'amja, and in each case four, three, two, and one staffs with the Quetzal's feathers and green feathers, together with garlands, the Chalchihuites precious stones, with the sagging lower jaw and the bundle of fire for the Temezcal steam bath."
To my knowledge I am the first to note the interesting fact that many of the Moai statues on Easter Island appear to have a mushrooms encoded into their head and noses, and that both the Maya mushroom stone and Moai statues share the "exact same" ear design. Above on the left is a effigy mushroom stone from Guatemala, and on the right is a giant Moai statue from Easter Island.
"Log sailing rafts were once considered unseaworthy for long-distance voyaging, but this contention has now been definitively disproved by Thor Heyerdahl and others" (Stephen C. Jett, 1971, "Man Across the Sea" p.11). Heyerdahl believed that oceans may have been highways, not barriers, ever since the development of navigation in sea-going vessels a few thousand years ago (Erik K. Reed 1971, "Man Across the Sea" p.107). Heyerdahl's great contribution was that he proved by example (Kon-Tiki voyage) that long-distance voyages in a primitive craft were indeed possible.
(Photograph of Amanita muscaria mushroom by John W. Allen)
The petroglyph drawing on the right is by Lorenzo Dominguez (1901-1963). When asked what it meant, the Easter Islanders replied that it represented "Make Make," their creator god (cumulus.planetess.com/.../ch18.htg/make.jpg). The Maya Venus glyph on the left is from Michael Coe's book Reading The Maya Glyphs 2001 p.163)
Above are cave artifacts discovered by Easter Island archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl and his team, which include stone trophy heads, and clay figurines that resemble a were-jaguar. Carbon dating of many of these Easter Island artifacts suggests an occupation of Easter Island around A.D. 380 A.D, about a thousand years earlier than scientists previously speculated (photo from Heyerdahl's 1989, "Easter Island The Mystery Solved").
Quoting Mark A. Hoffman:"The concept of tapu, as the source and translation of our word “tabu,” is close in meaning to mana, an important concept in Polynesian religion that describes a contagious spiritual power that lasts only a short period of time. The word tapu is similarly used in describing transitory states such as shamanic ecstasy—or “being under the influence of the Gods”—and the sacredness of the ceremonies whose main function it was to channel this divine “energy” where it was desired (Eliade 1987). Because this energy is characterized by its motion, tapu-infused or “sacred” foods, [objects], etc., must be carefully managed to avoid accidental exposure to potentially dangerous spiritual influences. The proscriptions are assigned “forbidden” status, and special preparations and precautions are established for entering states of “divine possession.”
CHAPTER
Published research of this petroglyph and its probable Long Count date, conducted by Pedro de Eguiluz Selvas entitled, "Origins of the Long Count," suggests that the correlation of this Long Count date with the Christian calendar fits the Spinden correlation perfectly, making it equivalent to the year 3 Monkey in the Unified Account of Anawak (CUAN). While this identification tends to reinforce the Spinden correlation, it calls into question the generally accepted, but still unproven (Wauchope, 1965, p. 605) GMT, or Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation, and its end date of December 21, 2012. Thus the Long Count date of 3.3.4.3.2 would be an important key to locate the origin of the long count at October 14th 3373 BCE., (Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America: Herbert J. Spinden p.136) and the famous end to the Mayan Calendar at 1752 rather than in December, 2012.
Mexican archaeologists Manzanilla López, Rubén, and Arturo Talavera González, published two articles on the monkey petroglyph which bears a probable Long Count date of 3.3.4.3.2. The date is shown between the left shoulder and the tail of a monkey holding a five-pointed star and jumping off what looks like a sacred mushroom. Researcher Pedro de Eguiluz Selvas ("Origins of the Long Count,") reports that the date as calculated by the Spinden correlation, (ie: 2168 B.C.in the Gregorian calendar) corresponds in the Unified Count of Anawak correlation (CRAN) to the year 3 Monkey in the Maya/Olmec Calendar. There is no corresponding association using the more often cited Goodman-Thompson-Martinez correlation or GMT correlation. Further study of this date 3 Monkey is needed and might explain the many painted Maya vessels, plates, and bowls which depict three monkeys.
Today the GMT correlation and it's 2012 end date of the Mayan calendar is associated primarily with the late Maya archaeologist J. Eric S. Thompson, one of the most, influential archaeologists of his time. In recognition of Thompson's many achievements in Maya studies, he was knighted, Sir J. Eric S.Thompson in 1975 by Queen Elizabeth II, a few days after his 76th birthday.
The lack of agreement on the appropriate correlation of the Maya Calendar has been a long standing problem. Over the years numerous correlations have been proposed but, according to archaeologist Michael D. Coe, today's unofficial "Dean of Maya Studies", of the various correlations developed to date, only the GMT 11.16, and the Spinden 12.9 correlation meet the requirements of both dirt archaeology and specific dates (The Maya, fifth edition, p.23). Since the two correlations differ by 260 years, the so-called "end date," of the Mayan Calendar according to the Spinden correlation occurred in December, 1752, compared to the GMT correlation and it's 2012 end date of the Mayan calendar.
Quoting Archaeologist Michael D. Coe...
"any displacement in the dating of the Maya Classic Period would disrupt the entire field of Mesoamerican research, for ultimately all archaeological chronologies in this part of the world are cross-tied with the Maya Long Count" (The Maya, fifth edition 1993 p. 23)
Mesoamerican chronology is based on the correlation of the Gregorian calendar with the Maya Long Count calendar, providing historians with absolute dates. Unfortunately the Mayan calendar cannot be directly correlated with the European calendar because the long count system of dating was no longer in use by the time of the Spanish Conquest.
In order to understand the reason for all the controversy, a few words of explanation are needed to explain the problem of correlation. By the time that Columbus and the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the New World, the Maya Long Count system of dating was no longer in use. It had been replaced by an abbreviated system called period-ending dating or the "Short Count", of tuns and katuns set to end on days named Ahau (also spelled Ajaw). Unlike the Long Count of the Classic period, the Short Count is not anchored to a base point. Unfortunately, no one living at the time knew how to integrate the Postclassic Short Count with the earlier Long Count system.
To give a simple example of the problem, imagine, if you will, that some time in the far past we had stopped writing out the full calendar date--say July 12, 2010--and simply recorded all our dates as 7/12/10. While this date is clear to those of us living today, it would be very confusing for historians in the future who could be left wondering in which century the date July 12 occurred--1710? 1910?, 2110? If no one could recall the full date for this event, historians would be left scratching their heads.
In order to understand the special nature of these associations, and why it may have been important to the ancient artist to record this date, we need to refer again to the image of the monkey in the petroglyph. First, the monkey appears to be jumping off an Amanita muscaria mushroom, an hallucinogenic variety considered to be highly sacred throughout Mesoamerica because of its mind-altering qualities. The identification of the mushroom as an Amanita derives from the characteristic"skirt" on the mushroom's stem. The monkey also holds in his right hand a 5-pointed star, an iconic symbol identified by Mesoamerican scholars as linked to the planet Venus and it's 5 synodic cycles in the Dresden Codex. It should be noted that the number 5 was specifically associated with Quetzalcoatl and his quincunx symbol, and also with Venus. The synodic revolution of Venus is 584 days, and these revolutions were grouped by the in fives, so that 5 x 584 equaled 2,920 days, or exactly eight years" (Nicholson, 1967 pp. 45-46).
Eguiluz has, in addition to deciphering the long count date, called attention to the two concentric circles in front of the monkey's stomach. These he associates with the calendrical cycle of 13. He also notes that, counting counterclockwise from the fourth point, three parallel rows of dots probably allude to the Nine Lords of the Night. Eguiluz sees the two larger dots on either side of the monkey as alluding to the tonalpohualli date of 2 Wind, and the shape of the monkey's tail as a symbol of the wind.
According to the Five Suns cosmogonic accounts as interpreted by scholars Mary Miller and Karl Taube (1993; p.118), Quetzalcoatl in his guise as Ehecatl (the Wind God) presided over the second sun, ehecatonatiuh, the sun of wind, until it was destroyed by great winds. The survivors of that era were turned into monkeys and Quetzalcoatl was their ruler. Finally, Susan Milbrath writes in her book on Mesoamerican archaeoastronomy entitled, Star Gods of the Maya (1999,p. 256 ), that an analysis of the Dresden Codex identifies the monkey, itself, as also related to Venus as the Morning Star.
In summery, if Eguiluz's interpretations are correct, the petroglyph of the monkey jumping from an Amanita muscaria mushroom (first noted by the author) commemorating the calendar year 3 Monkey, would be the earliest known date associated with both the mushroom cult and Venus cult, with both cults linked with the god Quetzalcoatl. That fact alone is of great significance. However, since it lends heavy weight to Spinden's correlation of the Maya calendar, it not only establishes the date for the beginning of the First world cycle at October 14, 3373 B.C.E., it places the "so-called" end of the Fifth world cycle at 1752 CE rather than 2012 (Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America: Herbert J. Spinden p.136).
In other words, contrary to much contemporary hype, the end of the "Fifth world" may have already occurred. If so, instead of Armageddon, the Mayan Calendar simply began another cycle.
CHAPTER
Maya Vase Study:
In 1996, about the time my own twin sons were born, I began to wonder what had happened to the interesting line of inquiry that my father had opened. I knew that great strides had been made in Maya studies but, to my considerable surprise I realized that there was almost no mention of mushrooms, or for that fact any other hallucinogenic substances, in the current literature. Curious to discover what had happened, I decided to look into the matter myself. I read through the scores of letters that he had exchanged with other Mesoamerican scholars that are housed in the Borhegyi Archives at the Milwaukee Public Museum (hereinafter Borhegyi, MPM), as well as the more than 500 letters that he exchanged with Gordon Wasson (Wasson Archives at Harvard's Peabody Museum. (hereinafter Wasson HPM) In time, I also read through my mother's extensive library of books and pamphlets on Mesoamerican archaeology and ethnology and began to acquire my own personal library in addition to using materials from local library collections.
In the fall of 2004 I enrolled in a course entitled "Topics in Maya archaeology" at Hamline University. My assignments in that class introduced me to the online research site FAMSI (Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc). Here I discovered Justin Kerr's remarkable compilation and data base of roll-out photographs of Mesoamerican ceramic figurines and Maya vase paintings. It was this site, above all, that permitted me to make the detailed study of Mesoamerican visual art. This task was immensely facilitated by new photographic technology, the computer, and my ability to access the Kerr database on my home computer, all modern day miracles unavailable to earlier researchers. As a result of this study and solid evidence from other scholars, I have been able to expand this subject far beyond my father's pioneering efforts.
To my surprise I found no mention of images of mushroom stones, pottery mushrooms, or images of actual mushrooms in Kerr?s extensive index. However, after hours of examining hundreds of Maya vase paintings, I discovered a significant amount of mushroom imagery, both realistic and abstract, of both the.Amanita muscaria or Fly Agaric mushroom, and the better known hallucinogenic Psilocybin mushroom. It was easy to understand, however, why the imagery had not been noted earlier. On many vases the images of mushrooms, or images related to mushrooms, were so abstract, and so intricately interwoven with other complex and colorful elements of Mesoamerican mythology and iconography, that they were, I believe, quite deliberately "hidden in plain sight," in an effort to conceal this sacred information from the eyes of the uninitiated.
Archaeologist Michael D. Coe was one of the first to recognize that many of the scenes depicted in Maya vase paintings are images of the Maya underworld, known as Xibalba, and versions of the creation story as told by the Quiché Maya of highland Guatemala. This myth, written in Quiche Maya using Spanish orthography, is known today as the Popol Vuh, It involves two sets of divine twins.
One of the first Maya vase paintings I found with encoded mushroom imagery was a Late Classic Maya vase painting (600-900 C.E.) K1490, illustrated below. I immediately saw what I believe to be mushrooms encoded in the robes of the twin smokers on the right below.
I believe that the complex scene on Maya vase painting K1490 may illustrate one of the passages in the Popol Vuh in which the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, smoke cigars in the underworld. The two figures in front of them, appear to be wearing the same clothing as the first pair, and may allude to the same set of twins. One of the twins, however, has undergone sacrificial decapitation. Another interpretation could be that the two smokers, through their hallucinations, are seeing the fate of their own lives in front of them, or visions of their father and uncle in their underworld who also struggle against the Nine Lords of Death, the Xibalbans.
Photographs © Justin Kerr K1490
Like many other Late Classic period (500-900 CE.) carved and painted vessels, Maya Vase painting K1490 depicts the sacred (and improbable) ritual act of self-decapitation. Note that the third individual from the right has no head. He holds in his left hand the obsidian knife with which he has decapitated himself. In his right hand he holds the cloth in which he will wrap the head in a bundle. The fourth individual from the right is shown holding the decapitated head by the hair with his right hand, and a knife in his left hand. After a close examination of this scene, it occurred to me that it might depict an early version of an episode related in the colonial period document known as the Popol Vuh.
Photographs © Justin Kerr
Maya vase K8936, shown above in roll out form, depicts several scenes associated with the Maya creation story.
According to the Popol Vuh, after the Xibalbans (the Lords of the Underworld) defeated Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu in a ballgame, they sacrificed them and hung the severed head of Hun Hunahpu in a calabash tree. The head of Hun Hunahpu impregnated a daughter of the Xibalbans, named Blood Woman, with the Hero Twins by spitting into her hand.
In the scene above, the jaguar god of the underworld, shown on the far left, holds a decapitated head (likely the head of Hun Hunahpu). Seated below the jaguar is the pregnant daughter of the Xibalbans known as Xquik "Blood Woman". She is painted blood red, and is shown stretching out her palm beneath the decapitated head. The decapitated head of Hun Hunahpu spits semen onto her hands which fertilizes, giving birth to the legendary Hero Twins. Her father, one of the Lords of death in the Maya underworld, is the skeletal god to the far right who also holds the bloody head of Hun Hunahpu. For the Classic period Maya, a skeletal god whose name is unknown was a god of the Evening Star (Miller & Taube 1993 p.180).
In front of Blood Woman sits a character marked with cimi death signs (looks like a % sign) on his legs. He wears on his head what, I believe, is a mushroom-inspired headdress. In his hand he holds a drinking vessel which may contain a mushroom-based beverage which he will use to journey or portal into the underworld. The large jar or olla that sits on his lap may contain the cultivated sacrament. The skeletal death god on the right also carries a ceramic jar. It likely contains a hallucinogenic beverage to be taken at death for the ritual cross-over, or underworld journey. The large blood-stained X-icon located on his skull cap represents the portal door to this journey of transformation.
Directly behind Blood Woman, at the bottom of the scene, is a large transparent view of the inside of her womb. In it we see the unborn Hunahpu, the eldest of the Hero Twins. He is shown on his back with his knees pointed upwards. Hunahpu, the first born of the Hero Twins, personifies Venus. His day-sign is One Ahau or Hun Ahau, the sacred date of the heliacal rising of Venus as Morning Star in the Venus Almanac of the Dresden Codex. To the left of the unborn Hunahpu is a coiled serpent in the shape of a ballcourt hoop. The hoop bears symbols of the four cardinal directions. The inner circle denotes the goal of the hoop as well as the central portal of resurrection. It is associated with the color green, which is the green quetzal-feathered serpent aspect of Quetzalcoatl as the planet Venus.
In Mesoamerican mythology Quetzalcoatl represents the Lord of the Ballgame and Lord of decapitation. It is likely his image that the Maya saw as a decapitated ballplayer in the constellation of Orion. Orion was believed to be the belt or ballgame yoke of Hun Ahau or Quetzalcoatl. The three stars of his ballgame yoke may represent the three hearth stones of Maya creation.
Behind the serpent is a rabbit, a symbol of the moon and fertility, holding a ball between its knees. The ball is encoded with the symbol of three, referring again to the three hearth stones that were placed at the time of creation by the pair of twins depicted directly above. These two figures are most likely a Classic period version of the Hero Twins from the Popol Vuh. The twin on the left with jaguar features can be identified as Xbalanke. He holds what appears to be the three hearth stones of creation (the three thunderbolts in the Popol Vuh?). Two of the three stones appear under the right arm and he is placing the third stone in his left hand into the sky at the place of ballgame sacrifice.
Xbalanke's trademark attributes are his jaguar spots, (note his spotted ear), symbolic of the Moon and underworld sun or Sun God. He most likely represents the Evening Star aspect of the planet Venus. To the right of Xbalanke is his older twin brother Hunahpu. He can be identified by his blowgun, which he holds like a paddle, reminiscent of the Paddler Twins. He is likely an aspect of the planet Venus as Evening Star. Both twins wear the scarf of underworld decapitation, and both are depicted above their unborn bodies. The womb of Hunahpu is directly behind Bloodwoman, while the womb of Xbalanke is in the shape of a curled up jaguar and is depicted directly behind the rabbit holding the ball.
Evidence of pre-Columbian contact? The Makara (Sanskrit; Javanese: Makårå) often called "the water monster vehicle", or "sea dragon", is a Hindu-Buddhist mythological sea creature, often depicted with its trunk tilted up and its mouth spread wide open, and at times from which a deity emerges. The Makara is a common motif in Hindu and Buddhist iconography, generally portrayed guarding the entrance of many ancient temples in Indonesia. The drawing above the Makaras, is by the late Tatiana Proskouriakoff, taken from the palace at the ancient Maya ruins of Sayil, in Yucatan Mexico (1946: p.53). As with many other ancient civilizations, Mesoamerican's believed the deceased had to cross a body of water to reach the afterlife.
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